Lately, do you feel like regulations are more like flipping a coin? Whether it’s salt in the wound caused by the Conflict of Interest Rule or the stop-and-go patterns of interim final rulings, the last few years Washington has our industry rubbernecking at woulda, coulda, shouldas.
Each new passage has us waiting for the change with bated breath. How will it impact our business? Our clients? Then we frantically read about the updates, news and coming-soon changes and we get ready. We arm our business with the necessary processes and procedures to operate in compliance. We seek out new vendor relationships that will comply with best practices. We attend hours of webinars and training. We intently alert our clients of what is happening and why they need to know. Then what? It stalls. Stops. Kaput. It’s gone.
How on earth is anyone supposed to run a business like that, let alone an entire industry? It’s impossible. It makes us look like the boy who cried wolf, over and over again. It has to stop.
Why You Need to Support the PAC
Thankfully, we have an amazing lobbyist group that can stand tall in Washington and support our causes. They can meet with congressional leadership and voice which regulations are necessary, why we need them and even why certain regulations are superfluous.
However, they need your support. If you’re committed to the retirement plan industry, then this is your business—your livelihood. One way to help is a donation towards strengthening the voice of our appointed and it will give them the political capital to influence decisions that impact your bottom line.
Read more commentary by Rebecca Hourihan here.
Zooming into the NAPA D.C. Fly-In Forum
Another way to get involved is to directly sit down with your state’s political leadership through the NAPA D.C. Fly-In Forum. And you get a bonus this year—you don’t even need to travel. Join the Zoom conversation.
Tell your congressman or congresswoman what is going on and why they need to support or not support certain retirement plan legislation. Use your voice and influence to help them understand the important work that you do. Remind them how their vote can improve the retirement success for millions of constituents.
Stop the Ping Pong
Government needs to lead. Lack of strong leadership causes confusion, misinformation and distrust. That’s not good for anyone, but you have the power to help.
Join the retirement plan industry leaders and step up to make your voice heard. Support the American Retirement Association’s PAC and help them lobby for important issues. Address your state’s leadership with examples of the great work that you are doing and how the retirement plan industry is improving retirement outcomes for millions of Americans. Because if we’re not our own biggest advocates, one day the government might serve us with regulations from which we can’t bounce back.
- Donate to the PAC: https://www.usaretirement.org/pac
- Join the NAPA D.C. Fly-In Forum: https://napadcflyin.org/
- Attend the NAPA 401(k) Summit: https://napasummit.org/
Thanks for reading and Happy Marketing!
Rebecca Hourihan, AIF, PPC, is the founder and CMO of 401(k) Marketing, which she founded to assist qualified experts operate a professional business with professional marketing materials and ongoing awareness campaigns.
