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Reader Poll: How Did You Come to Work With Retirement Plans?

I’ve rarely met someone working with retirement plans who planned to work with retirement plans, though the various stories are frequently not only informative, but inspiring. This week NAPA-Net readers share the path that brought them to where they are today — and why.

Before turning to their work with retirement plans, I asked readers to share that job they had right before starting to work with retirement plans. Of course, for many it was their first job, while others had done only temp work previously. Paralegal was a common response, and a good number had worked as an advisor (just not an advisor working with retirement plans), as well as insurance sales. Several had been bartenders (no comment), and there were a number of school teachers. However, we also had responses from:

Oil industry

Assistant in pest control field

Worked in the benefits office of a Juvenile Corrections facility prior to attending the Philadelphia Institute of Employee Benefits

Program director for a regional chamber of commerce

Camp Counselor and Department Store

Initiating certain transactions for the Trust Department, preparing the daily transactions (for the entire department) for processing and reviewing print-outs of daily transactions the next day.

I was an accounting department supervisor at a failed Savings & Loan.

Working in the airport hub for Federal Express.

College and part-time job at local grocery store!

Commercial Claims Analyst

Shoe salesman

I was in a small regional bank at the time and had been working in the loan collections department as a manager at age of 27. Yes, a Repo man. Worked in this area for 44 months and wanted a change. Was given an option to work as a commercial lender or go into the world of employee benefits.

Once connected with the retirement field, many of this week’s respondents started in positions that were not too far afield:

TPA work was a relatively common response, including the reader who “Joined a small TPA and learned to do annual accounting, allocations, 5500s and all on green-bar paper. No Computers!! And in the day of target benefit plans too!” A number got their introduction working in bank trust departments (Working for a bank in the self-directed IRA department, Administrative Assistant to the head of the Pension Dept., Balancing assets in the Trust department of a bank, Relationship management with a small handful of the larger plans in the department. Back in 1991 we only used balance forward accounting so very labor intensive each quarter, Bank Trust Department providing allocation work on 401k's), and there were many who found their first retirement-focused employment as an advisor, including the reader who said “I began my financial advisor career with a start-up RIA. I was working with only personal clients. An advisor left and I was thrown into the mix of managing a couple of plans.”

There were, however, some that seemed just a bit off the “expected” path:

Wrote actuarial software for DB plan provider.

Processing deferral contributions for employer 401(k) plans.

Retirement plan design illustrations

I answered an ad for a medical management company and was responsible for bringing all of the clients money purchase and profit sharing plans up to date to comply with ERISA. Yep. 1974.

Worked for a pension administration firm filling out Form EBS-1 in the summer of 1975 between my sophomore and junior years of college.

Handling 5500's they terminating the defined benefit plan of my employer when they went chapter 11

Research Assistant/Intern, Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration, U.S. Department of Labor

Establishing small plans for doctors as they prepared their financials for the year

As for what motivated their move to work with retirement plans, there were a number of interesting responses:

When I started to learn more about retirement plans and their participants, I began to notice the market is extremely underserved by specialists. Most advisors don't understand simple plan design, don't give participants the time of day, and don't really know what they are doing. Also, many of the participants in retirement plans have never spoken to an advisor or have received bad advice. I decided by working with retirement plans, I could positively impact the retirement of thousands of people over my career. Instead of working with individuals, I could help people who may not have access to a financial advisor, the information they need to make valuable choices about their retirement.

To diversify my product line as a wholesaler. I didn't want to only deal with selling rate increases on health insurance AND this new plan was just coming out called a 401k.

I felt that I could educate more people on the benefits of saving for retirement and in a workplace setting. I believe that education is the key to successful retirement planning. Getting employees to understand and feel comfortable with the ups and downs of the market and the investment strategies that work.

I was motivated to work with retirement plans because I wanted to find a career that is impactful. Working with retirement plans, I have the ability to help participant navigate the complex waters of investing to improve their retirement outlook.

Upon reading the proposed changes for defined benefit plans, in the late '70s, and the new 401k possibilities, it became clear that the people who needed help the most, the participants, were not going to get it. Companies were warned not to give any advice to participants for fear of lawsuits over investment losses; participant would be on their own. I chose to try to help educate the participants on everything from becoming a saver, to terminology, asset allocation and managing expectations and learning how to set goals...I still do this to this day!

A number of people — mostly the working class folks from my neighborhood. I wanted to see the system get it right for them.

Love of numbers and reading the code/regulations

I received a degree in Finance and liked the idea of helping people understanding their savings.

My father worked in the industry

I am a better educator than I am a sales person and I believe that the retirement plan business is more about educating plan sponsors and their employees than it is about selling.

Attended college for actuarial science and always intended in being in the field. Took an aptitude test at the age of 14 and it suggested Actuary. Who knew?

Their complexity, the constantly changing environment and what I perceived to be job security with a specialty expertise. There will always be pension jobs, I thought, and there still are, though far fewer in my area than there used to be.

Income potential, growth opportunities, opportunity to help people help themselves financially

My sister worked in the DB section of a large Boston area insurance company. She suggested I drop off my resume after college (early 80's) as they were going to grow the Defined Contribution department.

I was volunteering with my Chamber of Commerce, who sent my resume to the company I work for now. I was just motivated to find steady work in a recovering economy.

I wanted to be an Actuary, working my way through the exams. CG sponsored an Actuarial Training program that was rotational in nature. Pure luck that I was initially placed in group pensions. It was fun working different cases. Each one had its own nuances — never the same thing twice. After 2 years in pensions, I was moved to individual insurance studies. Incredibly boring. I had to leave to get back to pensions, and into consulting, where I've been now for 30 years.

Started out doing a bit of it in my first job as an analyst and loved it.

Someone gave me the job. And I love it. I feel like I'm making a difference in the lives of American workers.

At the time I looked at the retirement plan area as a place in the organization that gave me exposure to law, accounting and investments. I had always had a "well-rounded" life and never felt I wanted to specialize in anything particular. I felt this would challenge me and if the bank were to go through transitions, there was a life insurance company in town that had a presence in the business. I felt it provided a better ladder than that of a commercial lender.

Got offered the job by the company in which I was doing secretarial work and I had graduated from college and was looking for something more sophisticated with more advancement potential than secretarial work.

A regular and Golden Tee addict at the sports bar I worked at was a financial advisor who had recently started his own firm. We talked a few times, and I decided to join his firm. We started working out of his house primarily working on healthcare plans. My mentor's wife had just made partner at Hewitt and was with Hewitt when 401(k)s were in their infancy. At the time, Great West was offering self-funded healthcare plans and "free" retirement plans to their healthcare clients. Our first plans were small, but we felt there was a need for a Hewitt like service model for small and mid-size clients. We grew the business added 15 advisors over the next five years. Sadly I lost my friend and mentor along with three other co-workers when our corporate plane crashed while en route to a client meeting in Tennessee. It has been 12 years since that tragic day and I always think of my mentor and his impact on my life. His picture is in my office watching over me. Back then we managed $100 Mil in assets, there was no 408(b)2 or PPA and Sarbanes-Oxley had just been implemented. Life was easy. It is completely different now, but the service model we created still works well today.

After relocating to Minnesota, I was looking for administrative assistant work with a "financial" focus. It turned out I supported my consultants for less than a year before one of them left and I was asked if I wanted to step into the consultant role. The rest is history!

I was trying to get away from tax season... what was I thinking?!

Tax Partners at Ernst and Whitney (now Ernst and Young) encouraged me to focus on ERISA and benefits work

After the RTC shut down the Savings & Loan I worked at back in 1991, I was out of work for one month before finding a job in a bank trust department. Their "Employee Benefits" department was growing and they needed to add to staff. I was very fortunate to enter this industry and this year marks my 25th anniversary.

Fate.

College professor recommended me for the job. The economy was in a recession and I needed to get a decent job.

College degree was in Spanish and had no idea what to do with that. I liked working with numbers, reading, interpreting and writing. A representative from the Institute for Employee Benefits Training spoke with me in my senior year in college, talked to me about their employee benefits program and how numbers, analytical reading of the laws and writing, all requirements for employee benefits work, fit my skills. I went to the six-month school, and the rest is history, 30 years later this year.

Company was creating a new defined contribution offering and asked for volunteers. Seemed like a good opportunity to learn something new.

I was passing by the building for a job interview at another employer. I thought I would just stop in and fill out an application since I was in my interview outfit. This company was one of the only ones to show interest in an inexperienced young person who graduated from high school only a month before. 40 years later, I'm still here!!

Asked if they had any regrets about their choice of employment working with retirement plans, nearly every answered (and answered strongly) in the negative.

No regrets; over the last 35 years I have seen and enjoyed plentiful and varied work experiences through all the related services and products and served a wide variety of plan types and plan sponsors and worked with providers in operations, compliance, audit, process improvement, retail and wholesale marketing, participant education, and investment advice. It has also provided an increasing and very comfortable income for me and my family.

No regrets. I enjoy helping plan sponsors navigate ERISA and more importantly helping plan participants retire with dignity.

Nope! I totally love this work.

None, it has been an incredible career.

That said, there were, to invoke Frank Sinatra, a few regrets:

“I regret not building a bigger practice earlier, with more advisors and support staff... I could have helped so many more participants than was possible with a small staff.

Taking anything and everything in the first couple years of working with plans.

Only that I didn't stick with them as a producer! Instead, I left to become a 401k wholesaler...

I didn't understand the small profit margins in the industry and the potential pressure to lower them further.

My only concern is that over the future of our industry. Several aspects of what seem to be taking place (consolidation, litigation, regulation) feel eerily similar to that of the wind down of what happened in the health care side of the business.

Daily as I see the consolidation, the move to online "everything" and the treatment of what I do as just another commodity.

I'm primarily concerned about specializing in a very niche industry.

Sometimes I wonder what life would have been life had I pursued my other love — astronomy.

But this week’s Editor’s Choice goes to the reader who expressed job regret “Every time Congress decides to simplify the pension laws.”

Thanks to everyone who participated in our weekly reader poll!

Got a suggestion for our weekly reader poll? Post it in the comments below, or email them to me directly at [email protected].

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