In today’s rapidly evolving retirement marketplace, TPAs are being advised to “create a solution for your client as opposed to being a product peddler.”
That was overarching theme of “TPA-ing the Scale: How TPA Relationships Can Add to Your Advisory Practice,” a panel discussion at the 2013 NAPA/ASPPA 401(k) Summit March 4. The panel consisted of Jeffrey Feld of Alliance Pension Consultants, James Holland of Millennium Investment & Retirement Advisors, and Tommy Thomasson of Daily Access Corp.
The retirement market is changing, and it’s very different this year than it was just last year, say Feld, Holland and Thomasson. We’re moving away from a product driven model to a service driven model, they agreed. Now more than ever, plan sponsors are able to dictate to their advisors the cost and services they are going to receive. Thus, there’s an increasing need to provide a unique solution — one that will fit the specific needs of the plan sponsor, as opposed to a simple transaction.
“We should be consulting our advisors just like our advisors consult their clients,” says Thomasson. “It’s the role of the record keeper to help advisors provide more value to their clients and deepen the client relationship.”
