Fred Barstein

By Fred Barstein | 1/25/2016

Change is inevitable and even if you’re doing well, no doubt there are opportunities missed if you are not trying new things. So to grow and even keep up as a plan advisor in an increasingly competitive industry tasked with the daunting challenge of helping people prepare for retirement, we need to... READ MORE

Do Proprietary Funds Create a Fiduciary Dilemma?

By Fred Barstein | 1/22/2016

Recent court cases clearly show that plan sponsors cannot leverage their DC plan to get better deals on other services, such as health care or corporate credit, from their plan providers; ERISA plans have to be designed for the sole benefit of the participants. But a much less subtle issue arises... READ MORE

What’s Ahead for DC Asset Management?

By Fred Barstein | 1/20/2016

Speaking at GRP Advisor Alliance’s Participant Outcomes & Financial Wellness Summit in Phoenix on Jan. 16, Charlie Ruffel, founder of Asset International and now head of a private equity fund that invests in investment managers, opined about the future of investment management in the DC world.... READ MORE

DB Shift to DC: A Game of Whack-a-Mole?

By Fred Barstein | 1/19/2016

Plan sponsors have moved from DB to DC plans to escape the funding liability, but that liability may be back in DC plans.The term “DB-ization” of DC plans seemed very positive when I first heard it. With automatic features, workers are automatically enrolled into a company’s retirement plan using... READ MORE

SEC Draws a Bead on 401(k) Specialists

By Fred Barstein | 1/13/2016

Continuing to deliver on its promise to focus on 401(k) plans and IRAs under its ReTIRE (Retirement Targeted Reviews and Examinations Initiatives) program, the SEC is focusing examinations on retirement advisors. Onsite visits under the program began in November.The SEC examiners are focused on:... READ MORE

Prospect ‘Progressively’: Lead with Advisor RFP

By Fred Barstein | 1/11/2016

Progressive Insurance and more recently Allstate through their Esurance division market themselves by offering to compare their pricing with the competition. Can — and should — plan advisors take a page out of these insurance companies’ playbook?A large DC advisory firm with over $30 billion in AUM... READ MORE

2016 Could Be a Tough Year for IBDs

By Fred Barstein | 12/30/2015

Independent broker-dealers could look back at 2015 as a pivotal year when a model that once looked like the best of all worlds turned into something else. And with the DOL set to cause more havoc, 2016 could be worse.IBDs offered advisors freedom from restrictions and proprietary products, while at... READ MORE

A Turning Point for Robo Advisors?

By Fred Barstein | 12/29/2015

Is the robo advisor market maturing? With another $16 million raised by NextCapital, which now has raised $300 million, it might be a sign of smart money picking the winners. So why could the latest round by NextCapital be a turning point for robos?The biggest eye opener is that two giant money... READ MORE

Advisors Need to Quantify Their Value

By Fred Barstein | 12/26/2015

At a recent TRAU C(k)P session, the question among experienced advisors was how to stave off the trend of diminishing fees by showing value to clients. One advisor said that they have started creating a list of various services they provide, the number of hours they expect to expend and the prices... READ MORE

The Evolution from Broker to Plan Advisor to Business Person

By Fred Barstein | 12/22/2015

It seems that we are at the end of the second of three phases in the evolution of the DC plan advisor, many of which started out as stockbrokers or insurance agents and found that the DC market was lucrative and fed other aspects of their business. As the third phase of the evolution begins, those... READ MORE

Three Trends Plan Advisors Should Leverage in 2016

By Fred Barstein | 12/21/2015

The year ahead is fraught with danger and opportunities for DC plan advisors. Here are the three trends I would be watching if I were a DC plan advisor.DOL RuleAs expected, it looks like the DOL’s fiduciary rule will be promulgated in the first quarter of 2016, with everyone watching carefully for... READ MORE

403(b) Market Ripe for Plan Advisors?

By Fred Barstein | 12/18/2015

According to a Cerulli report, advisors do have a significant share of the 403(b) market depending on the type of plan and organization.Geography matters as well; advisors in certain areas, like the District of Columbia, have to go out of their way to not work with 403(b) plans. So which types of... READ MORE

Market Forces Greater Than DOL Rule

By Fred Barstein | 12/15/2015

Whenever the DOL’s fiduciary rule is promulgated, there is already a move toward greater scrutiny of plan advisors, with more acting as a fiduciary on DC plans, if not IRAs. Fee disclosure and transparency were already growing realities formalized and perhaps accelerated by 408(b)(2) and 404(a)(5... READ MORE

Elite Plan Advisors Cooking up Small Plan Solutions

By Fred Barstein | 12/11/2015

As margins continue to shrink for advisors working with mid-size and larger plans, many so-called “Elite” advisors are going back to their roots, looking to work with smaller DC plans. Let’s examine the potential solutions and barriers as well as the reasons why these Elite advisors abandoned... READ MORE

Future Focus: the ‘Emergence’ of the Total Benefit Advisor?

By Fred Barstein | 12/8/2015

M Financial is arguably a different broker-dealer than most. It’s owned and run by their 150 member firms, many of which focus on the non-qualified COLI market, which gives them a different perspective. Along with the Labor Department’s fiduciary regulation, Dave Watros, the firm's V.P. of... READ MORE

PE Firms Have RIAs in Their Crosshairs

By Fred Barstein | 12/8/2015

Do the three recent mega deals for RIAs portend a buying spree of RIAs by private equity firms?Joe Duran, CEO of United Capital, an RIA aggregator, thinks that these three deals are just the beginning for private equity firms that see something in larger RIA firms, possibly as platforms to acquire... READ MORE

Elevating the Next Generation of Your Business

By Fred Barstein | 12/4/2015

The aging of the plan advisor community is a long-standing challenge that’s getting worse every year. Just as for wealth management advisors, there comes a point at which plan advisors need to either “grow or go.”aRIA, a group that consists of six RIAs with a combined $20 billion AUM and a... READ MORE

Raymond James’ Bohannon on the Demise of the ‘Accidental’ Broker Dealer

By Fred Barstein | 12/2/2015

Bo Bohannon, Manager of Retirement Plans Consulting at Raymond James, thinks that the pending DOL conflict of interest rules will have a major impact on BDs, especially what he calls the “accidental” DC BDs and the advisors within those firms.“Accidental” BDs usually include those that do not have... READ MORE

3 Ways to Improve Advisory Practice Margins

By Fred Barstein | 11/25/2015

Today most plan advisors are experiencing margin pressure. Short-term measures to deal with this problem include selling more plans without increasing overhead. But that means service will suffer. Alternatively, an advisor may be tempted to sell for less to get more plans and assets under... READ MORE

LPL’s Reich: Specialists Will Thrive in New DC World

By Fred Barstein | 11/23/2015

Though regulations have, and will likely continue to, make it tough for the emerging plan advisors to work with DC plans, competition will put even more pressure to either partner with a specialist advisor or raise their game, notes Dave Reich, EVP at LPL’s Retirement Partner group. “In a shake out... READ MORE

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