Crypto in 401(k)s & Roth Match Strategy

Friday, May 21, 2021 · 59:56

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[0:00] JD: Foreign [0:04] Chad: to get freaking hammered and Talk about some 401k stuff. Housekeeping. Are we playing Chap, Our champion? Does Jabba the Hutt wipe his own ass? [0:17] JD: No, he does not. [0:19] Chad: I don't know. And that doesn't work. [0:21] JD: That works. [0:21] Justin: Can he reach? [0:22] Chad: I don't know if he does or he doesn't. I've never seen Star wars, so. Does he have arms like. [0:28] JD: I'm not even. [0:28] Chad: He's a big. Is that why you were talking about slugs earlier? [0:31] JD: Isn't he just a massive slug? [0:33] Chad: Pretty much. That's why I brought it. Yeah. It made me think. Does he actually poop? But anyways, I digress. So, yes, we will be playing that or we're going to play acro Sin. For sure. That starts now. And I got some kind of little fun game. And we are going to be blessed with the best lamer game game in the history of lamer game games by robe guy today. So I'm looking forward to that. We don't have a guest today. However, I do. [1:04] Justin: Not doing it. Not doing it. [1:06] Chad: I do not want to rob the audience of the pleasure of rating Justin's intros 0 to 10. Therefore, and based on Justin's last week's performance, I think he needs the practice on intros. So we'll just use this as a little practice time. [1:21] Justin: No, I was looking forward to not having a damn intro this week. What are you doing to me? [1:25] Chad: No, Justin. So I will let you introduce someone that you know better than anyone. Like, you don't have to do any research. Just go ahead and practice and introduce yourself to the audience. [1:35] Justin: Talk about myself. [1:37] JD: Jesus. [1:40] Justin: Anyways, my name is Justin and I hate intros. [1:43] Chad: Let's roll the show. All right, everyone, rate Justin intro. [1:48] JD: That might have been his best yet. [1:51] Chad: Maybe I'm batting 10 right now. It's your best ever since Hackler. This is going to be the episode of best ever. So I'm pretty sure 111 from Hackler, 59 from Mark. I don't quite understand that one. Let's get right to it. I want to jump into some. Some topics. I got a few lined out for you guys. And we're going to just go straight into Chad's favorite deal here. I want to talk crypto. I want to Talk crypto and 401K. We've glazed over the subject in past shows, but today I want to spend a little. A little time on it. So to kick it off, I did a little bit of reading and I have learned that crypto I'm Reading here. I have some notes here, but pursuant to an IRS notice. What? 2014 hyphen 21, they're looking at crypto or bitcoin as treated as property for tax purposes. So same thing in legal theory as like stocks or real estate. So crypto can be, in a sense purchased for in retirement plans or purchase as investment retirement plans. But what stands in its way? So, Chad, I'll go as usual, go straight to you. What are the naysayers saying? What's the first thing Aaron says? Yes, in theory. In theory, it can. So what's the first thing that people say but you can't do it? And why wouldn't you do it? Oh, Chad's muted. [3:24] Mark: Wow. I said the why and can't are two different things. No wonder you guys didn't laugh at my dad joke a few minutes ago. [3:31] JD: We don't laugh at jokes. [3:33] Mark: Anyways, dude, it's access, right? J.D. i only know of one provider that's, that's, that's giving plans access to utilizing it. Otherwise, you're not going to find it anywhere. So the first thing would be operationally. I just don't think it's possible yet. [3:49] Chad: Why do you think there's no access to it? I'm trying to get to, like, what Doug Dalzell is talking about, and I'll push to Mark, it says this fiduciary risk. Right. I mean, the, the reason is that people don't want to use this, are concerned about whether it even fits within the laws of Aristo or applies to their fiduciary responsibility. Yes. Chad. What? [4:10] Mark: Before you go there, let's not, let's not look past the fact that I don't think it's not being accessed because of risk yet. I think maybe mainstream perhaps, but solo 401ks, other plans that are subject to ERISA pooled plans could be utilizing it. Oh, that's true. J.D. said it too, by the way. Employee Retirement Income Security Act. So it could be used where there's not a fiduciary liability to. To a plan sponsor offering a plan. But it's not being used from a custodial standpoint, from a tracking standpoint, it's not being used yet because the functionality is not there. That's my belief. [4:54] Chad: Oh, okay. Well, I was putting, I guess, the cart in front of the horse. I was trying to respond to you and Tim. Well, the reason why it's not there is because a lot of people that don't think it fits. Therefore, why would they work to create a product if it doesn't make sense. [5:07] Mark: There's a lot of people that do think it fits too. [5:11] Chad: My question for you, Chadwick, is why do the naysayers say it doesn't fit? And people in the chat bar have backed up this concept of because it's not the right thing to do. It's not fiduciary sound. It's not, you know, a plan sponsor has an obligation, as we all know, like yeah, we hear this over and over again. Right. To act in the best interest of the participants and a plan sponsor and the advisor to put forth a prudence core menu. Thank you. Hackled, prudent. And this doesn't fit. So is this any different from. Maybe this is out of Mark's comfort zone, but I'll go there anyways. You have emerging markets as an asset class. You have tech as an asset class. And some people would make the same argument that those don't belong on a core menu, but they still do. And a lot of other people do use them. Is this any different than those asset classes? [6:03] JD: Well, I would actually not to go away from your question, but when you immediately said that, I thought you were going a different direction. I thought you were going to say is it similar to like somebody having access to a self directed brokerage account where now they're going outside of this monitored core menu of funds and they're inherently taking on more risk that you know, the employer has no oversight of. They're doing their own thing. They're going out and investing in stocks that, you know, could be very risky. They don't know. So that, that I would, I would argue it's more similar to that. But to your point, I guess my. [6:44] Chad: Oh, that's fantastic. [6:45] JD: Yeah. My answer to that would be I think it's pretty, I think it's different than that. I think that those are maybe more aggressive but not necessarily as much of a risk and as volatile as something like a, like a bitcoin or what have you. [6:58] Chad: Well, even Doug Delzel is chiming in again saying Penny Sock as an example. So what we're talking about here is volatility, right? [7:04] Mark: Let me, let me, let me comment a little bit on that. So first, there are plenty of super volatile investments available in core menus. No, not core menus. I will second that. It is different to me, JD the cryptocurrency is different than utilizing an emerging markets fund because the emerging markets fund is still vast when you're investing in a cryptocurrency, unless you're, you're getting the etf that's trying to be created in Canada. Damn it. You're getting a singular cryptocurrency. Right. You're getting a bitcoin, you're getting a litecoin. [7:44] Chad: There's less diversification. [7:46] Mark: Right, right, right. So. So I will agree with you in that standpoint, but there are plenty of volatile investments that are made available in plans that are subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Not making that mistake again. Now here would be my thought, though. Doug mentions that in his mind, crypto is only a short term investment. I think the vast majority of people who are actually investing in cryptocurrency understand that it's actually a long term investment. That people who understand blockchain and think that this will be a decentralized technology that's used in the financial space, they look at it and say, yeah, super volatile now, but at some point a bitcoin's likely going to be worth, I don't know, a couple hundred thousand dollars of coin. And so it is a long term play for the vast majority of people that are not day trading cryptocurrencies. It's not a short term thing in my mind. It is in the bill's point, pure speculation. Yes, because its value right now is based upon other people wanting bitcoin. But if you understand blockchain, behind it there is actually a product, there is actual trade value behind it, that it does have a place in a portfolio. [9:04] Chad: I'm not arguing that bitcoin and crypto in general doesn't have a place in someone's investing portfolio. The conversation here today is, does it have a place in 401k plans? And by the way, this is, this is on the COVID of 401k specialist magazine, you know, with the, the DC dude, Anthony Scarmoney or whatever the heck his last name was, is on the COVID talking. Oh, dang it. Yeah. [9:27] Mark: Okay. [9:31] Chad: And so as you read through that article and you read through the many articles online, they do, they are talking about this volatility, they are talking about the fiduciary responsibility. These are things that are keeping it out of the 401k space. And that's the conversation that I wanted to have. I get where you're going with Chad. And however an individual looks at as investment, that's not the question here today. The question is, can it be an investment on a 401k menu and would that be prudent? And you shake your head no. Even as an advocate for crypto, there's a lot of people apparently not A lot in this audience tonight. But that say, no, it shouldn't. It will be. [10:09] Mark: You know, but I mean, well, that's different. Should and will be in the future is different than can it be and should it be now? In my opinion right now, the way that our retirement system is set up for a 401k plan, it is not about short term volatility. There's clearly a very long term play. And short term volatility can hurt the long term play if you're not invested holistically and prudently. And as a plan sponsor, are you willing to take the risk of putting in something that volatile in a core menu when there's no upside really, for you, for the employee? [10:45] Chad: Do we have some comparison? [10:46] Mark: No stock was the comparison I threw out there. [10:49] Chad: I meant like on a. I mean we have volatility indexes and stuff. So I'm almost asking the chat bar out there, like, how far off the spectrum is the volatility in crypto as compared to technology or. I don't know. I mean, emerging markets would be a scary place to be in right now, I think. So is it that far off the chart? [11:12] Mark: Can I ask? Because I don't know if technology as a whole, if there's a big day where technology dives are the vast majority of technology stocks diving at the same time? No. [11:24] Chad: And you hit the nail on the head earlier in that you can't really diversify, Right? So in technology at least, sure, it's a sector, but you can still spread out your investment amongst many different things. But wait a second, let me ask you this. Are all cryptos heavily correlated? And I'm not an expert in this area, but isn't that not true where there's a day where bitcoin takes a shit, but the other ones do? Okay, I don't know, Ryan. [11:52] Mark: Absolutely there is. I mean, you saw Litecoin run up almost 120% of the last two weeks while Bitcoin held pretty flat and took a 20% dive yesterday. [12:04] Chad: So maybe you could have a crypto ETF or a crypto mutual fund or whatever that has it spread out. Okay, thanks, Mark. [12:13] Mark: You know what's interesting, jd As I advocate for this stuff, I'm not advocating for it in the 401k obviously, but I advocate for it because I believe that technology is part of our future. But the interesting thing is in my mind, the money that I've put in cryptocurrencies is lost. Brooke doesn't even know what it's accrued to at this point, in my mind, it was an investment that I made with an amount of money I was willing to lose. Someone mentioned blackjack earlier. Kind of like playing a hand in blackjack. Now it's grown astronomically over the past few years, which is great. But in my mind, it's still not my money. I'm not selling those positions. I'm holding on to them for the long run. But it was when I invested, it was money that I figured it would be gone. And I would never do that with 401k. [13:01] Chad: So, yeah, what about. Go ahead, Justin. [13:04] Justin: What about those participants out there who aren't nearly as educated as you are, even slightly as educated as you, and they just hear that term and they get into it and they lose everything because there's a big. [13:14] Mark: That's why it's not prudent at this point for. Because it could drop. [13:19] Chad: How about this, you guys? 4 and 5 financial advisors said their clients asked them about crypto assets recently. So four out of five. [13:32] Mark: So let me, Let me acknowledge that of the people that. That's probably polling people who have access to a financial advisor, these are wealthy, affluent folks. That's not the average 401k investor. So if we're talking about this being prudent for a plan, typical person investing in a 401 plan. [13:50] Chad: I'm trying to state the obvious, which is this stuff's in the headlines. This stuff's in the headlines constantly. This stuff is on the minds of participants and people that are out there in the world, not just the wealthy. I mean, this stuff's all over the place. Chad, I would argue bullshit on the. What you just said. In a way, the wealthy, this is. The youth is obsessed with crypto. The youth, the poor broke starting their career. Youth are obsessed with crypto. So my point was. My point was that the world is very eager to know more about this. And so you can't just ignore it. And we can't just sit around and be like, oh, it doesn't matter. We don't have to talk about. Because we're 401k people. People are saying we want to know for sure. [14:35] Mark: I mean, look at. [14:36] JD: Just look at the recent news of our. Obviously dogecoin. That was meant to be a joke, and now that's become something. Dave Portnoy, Barstool Sports CEO, does a pick of which crypto, like a. Like a player who's going to a college, pick of which ones he's going after. Like, all of these things are trending on the Internet that Create buzz amongst, I think to JD's point, not wealthy, affluent Chads of the world, other people who are getting into the game. And it's, it's something that I think advisors need to be very well versed in and understand it's coming down the pike. And if you're not willing to, then you're, you're dumb. [15:20] Chad: Hackler said a humble brag. He's like, I'm the advisor for thousands of participants. They're not asking me about it. But that's good to hear. [15:27] Mark: So to Hawker's point there, I would imagine back before Apple and Google had names, there would have been many that would have come to you and thought putting those kind of vehicles as a stock, because that's what we're looking at, at a singular cryptocurrency inside a retirement plan would have been a terrible idea. Right. At one point those were penny stocks. At one point those were small privately traded companies. But they are no longer that. And I think that many people who understand blockchain believe that that will be the future of these cryptocurrencies. Not all of them, but many of them that are setting up based upon the success of blockchain. [16:08] Chad: Okay, well, I mean, we can wrap this and come back to it at another time, but it was on the COVID of 401K, Specialist magazine. There are. We already know that large corporations are investing tens of millions and hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin. You know, and they're not just like, Chad, I don't think they're doing it because they don't care if they lose it all. They're doing it for a purpose. Right. And so you're gonna see more and more of this. And whether Hackler says he's not hearing it from his people, I think eventually you will. Will. Because like Mark and I were saying, it's all over the fricking place. [16:45] Mark: Yeah. [16:45] Chad: So at a certain point, California, though, [16:47] Mark: guys, keep, keep that a little bit in mind. [16:49] JD: True. We're not in the flyover states. That's right. [16:53] Mark: Thanks, Mark. Way to point that out. [16:54] Chad: I think the general answer, the general answer here would be almost similar to why you would tell someone like Mark said, back to Mark being so smart here. You're right, Mark. Like you shouldn't have a brokerage account. You shouldn't, shouldn't let your rank and file employees just mess around with E trade and their 401k because. And then to Doug's analogy, because they can buy penny stocks and lose their shit. And we don't want them acting like Chad at the. At the roulette we own. [17:21] Mark: J.D. let's make. Let's make a. I don't know if I'll call it a wager, but a discussion right now. Will cryptocurrency be readily available on any of the major platforms in the next two years? Major platforms? Call them Fidelity and Empower, Voya, Hancock, the ones that are creating market share two years from today. [17:51] Chad: I. I would be willing to bet that there's a lot of no's. You know me, I love to push against this thing. I don't think it's going to be across the board, but I think you're going to see a handful of options in some ETF type of format or something in. Dang it. In 401ks. [18:08] Mark: I never took my shots for those either. I. Someone said it and I can't roll back up fast enough. Greg did G squared. It was kind of the act that the answer that I was help hoping for, which is no, probably in five to 10 years, which is acknowledging that this would be a long term investment that is sticking around. I'm trying to bait you. You didn't go there. [18:32] JD: Chad. Chad just got so excited, makes himself feel good. [18:37] Mark: No, J.D. didn't go there. I tried to bait him. [18:39] JD: Yeah, but you got someone in the chat bar to do it so you still feel validated. [18:43] Mark: Brandon. [18:44] Chad: Chad, let's break it up before we go to the next topic and let's pull up that little Star Wars. I had four Star wars characters. You throw them in the back of the screen and I'd like the audience to chime in here real quick, a little Star wars theme show. And Mark, I'm going to go to you first and then the audience can see whether they agree with you or don't agree with you. [19:07] Mark: Yeah. [19:08] Chad: Of these four characters, that's easy. If we had to match them up, retire holics to each character, who would Mark be? [19:18] JD: Oh, this is so easy. [19:19] Mark: No. [19:19] Chad: Can I do all four of you guys or all three of us? [19:21] Mark: Three. [19:21] JD: You guys. [19:22] Chad: I asked you who you would be and then the guy, the guy right above me, your Jaja Binks. [19:27] JD: I don't know who that is, but I kind of look like him. So yeah. [19:31] Chad: Audience time in. Who do you think Mark should be? Who do you think Mark should be up there? Or which one of those is Mark? Doug, we didn't ask who the fuck I was yet. All right, Mark, go ahead. Go ahead, Mark. No, I was just. Skip. Justin, which one of those suckers Are you up there? [19:48] Justin: R2D2. [19:51] JD: Which one's that way? Which one's that? [19:53] Mark: The one that doesn't talk. [19:54] Justin: Yep, that. [19:55] JD: The gold one. [19:59] Mark: Okay. [19:59] Chad: I don't know. I don't know any of the characters. And Chad, I'm guessing you think you given the choice or do you have any complaints? Would you like to be Jar Jar? [20:07] Mark: I have no complaints. No. I'm pretty sure [20:12] JD: it looks like the three. The. The. The gold guy. [20:17] Chad: I. I do think we up Brandon in that these are all very straightforward. There's. I don't haven't seen anyone even in the audience that has any issue with whom is whom in this case. [20:28] Mark: So it's pretty clear. [20:29] Chad: Yeah, they should have put them in order. [20:31] Justin: Where. [20:33] Chad: State your different ideas in the chat bar forever. Hold your peace. [20:36] JD: All right, there needs to be other ideas. [20:40] Chad: Let's move on to. I said last week that I would like us to come back to secure Act 2.0 and therefore not. Not just what you're seeing out there a lot right now is kind of surface level summaries of Mark, you hate not having control. [20:56] JD: Yeah. [20:58] Chad: What did he say? [20:59] Justin: He said the Act 2.0. [21:01] JD: 2.0. [21:02] Chad: Oh, I guess. [21:03] Mark: Sorry. [21:04] Chad: Setting every community up for retirement every day. [21:10] Mark: Something like that. [21:13] Chad: I don't know. I'll learn that one eventually. And so what I hoped is that we could kind of come back each week and really touch on one subset of it. And this week I'd like to touch on the rothification of a match, you know, or making a match Roth. So participants would be given the opportunity. [21:34] JD: Can we point out the fact that JD asked LinkedIn about that? [21:39] Chad: Yes. [21:40] JD: An hour and a half ago or something like. That's pretty funny. [21:44] Chad: Well, I'll tell you why. [21:46] Mark: Come on, guy. [21:47] Chad: That's a great setup. I actually was doing a bunch of research, like, okay, let me see if I can find something out there where someone's diving a little deeper. And everything was just surface level. Just saying, oh, yeah, secure 2.0. You can make employer match Roth. And it's like, that was it. And I was like, well, okay, there's some questions here, like, what else do we need to do? And so I said, let me ask the LinkedIn community. And sure enough, Mark, we got a lot of decent feedback. Right. Where people had questions. [22:16] JD: Yes. But yeah, I was gonna say, I don't think there's anything that. They're all speculation. Right. [22:20] Justin: Cause there's a very valid point. So clear. [22:24] Mark: Clear. One quick thing out for me. Is there an option for the Employer to cover the tax liability on the Roth match? [22:33] Chad: We don't know. No. Well, no. Why would you say that? [22:37] Mark: Because this is going to add to their extra benefit. [22:40] Chad: Add to their gross income? Yeah. No way. [22:43] Mark: Extra benefit for sure. If you can tell the employees I'm willing to make this match contribution, I'll cover the tax cost now. So it's going to grow tax free for you for those years sponsors have [22:53] Chad: you been meeting with. [22:55] Mark: I'm not saying they would do it. I'm saying it would be huge if they could. [22:59] Justin: I mean that just adds to the overall cost of their match at that point. [23:02] Mark: No, absolutely. [23:03] Chad: Leave it to Chad to try to make the things more complicated [23:08] Mark: and then [23:09] Justin: looping the vesting part of that and taxation of it, you know. Yeah, it'd be a nightmare. [23:14] Chad: But it goes back to other problems, Chad, of like, okay, my understanding is you're, you're basically grossing up their, their income, so. And there was some great comments on LinkedIn where someone made the analogy to like a company car, which I thought was kind of cool because I'm also concerned from the employer standpoint. At first I was like, well if I'm putting in this match, that's Roth and it's grossing up my employees income, do I have to like do payroll taxes and Social Security and things like that? Like whoa, tap the brakes. This is weird. And there's some people again to Mark's point, speculating, mind you, that. But we're saying, no, no, no, that's not how it's going to work. They'll just gross up their income. Like a company car is something that they would have to deal with on their own taxes. And I go and I search and I search and I search. I'm like, is there any info on this? I can't find anything. So I wanted to start these conversations because I think it's important to the audience. Go ahead. [24:10] Mark: I was just going to say let's acknowledge the benefit of it. And Guy mentioned a Roth conversion availability in the plan which does exist, but it's kind of nightmarish at this point. As an employee, the ability to get more money in where my tax liability is already covered and I'm clean, moving, moving forward is attractive. I don't see any negative yet except for folks who are willing to say operationally it's going to be difficult. [24:42] JD: Yes. [24:43] Chad: I want to be clear too. I can get very negative all the time. I am not negative on roughing the match. I think it's freaking cool and it's going to Create a lot of cool conversations and designs and things to do. But I'm just simply bringing up like, okay, but we need to start understanding more of the details here. And again, let's be clear, this isn't even gone through yet. I think the timeline they're saying is like sometime after August is when they would reconvene after their little recess and then we'll see how this pushes along. But a lot of the smart people are saying it's going to happen and it might have some modifications to this stuff. Even Aaron says, I'm curious what the ERA says. They've got a couple articles but nothing goes deep. But in their defense, they are good job. [25:28] Mark: They're stupid way to beta. [25:30] Chad: They're always snooping. Oh shit. Was that two? [25:32] JD: Yep. [25:34] Chad: How about vesting schedules, Mark, do you think you could have a vesting schedule on the match putting you on the spot? [25:42] JD: Do I think you can? [25:44] Chad: Yeah. [25:44] JD: For this rock on the Roth match. [25:48] Chad: Sorry to put you on the spot. [25:50] JD: Well, I was gonna say, I don't know why you couldn't. My question would just be, should you? [25:57] Chad: Yeah, it got brought up, it got brought up in the LinkedIn comments, I think by Kevin Gaston. I might be getting that wrong. But he brought up interesting. Like, well, wait a second, what if you did that? The participant pays their income tax on it and then two years later they leave. And I thought to myself, there's no way there's going to be vetting schedules on this. I wouldn't think so. Guy says, why couldn't it? Because you're getting tax on it. [26:24] Mark: Yeah, but what happens, I said in [26:25] Chad: my head, they rip that money back from you and you already paid taxes on it. So my first surfer brand said, but [26:33] Mark: they're still ripping it back only on the value that is in that source. So if you're $1,000 turns to 750 when you vest, it's not going to be on $1,000. It's going to be on the amount of money that is left in that source in your, your account. So it's only going to be on the 750. So the investing is not going to rip back on money you already paid taxes on. [26:55] Chad: If you went ahead and attacked. What if you. I mean, I'm being that too. [26:59] Mark: It's only the amount of money that's sitting in that source though, JD it's not on the actual dollar amount that was deposited. Same thing exists. So I'm given $1,000 in the PDC profit sharing plan and then it drops to $500. I don't know what I just said. Oh, plan design consultants. Damn. And then it drops. My thousand drops to 500 because I invested it in cryptocurrency and I had a 50% decline. And then I leave. You're still only clawing back what I'm not vested in, in the remaining $500 I have. [27:32] Chad: I'm not smart enough and I'm too many. I had two beers, Chad. [27:37] Justin: So if I'm hearing you right, are you saying. Okay, so you get that Roth mat, that match in there. Wait, did I? No, no, nevermind. We're good. [27:46] Mark: There you go. [27:48] Justin: You get that match in there and you're saying you're not going to be because it's after tax money, in a sense, you wouldn't be taxed on it in that year, Is that what you're saying? It's not going to be taxed on those dollars? And that's why I'm trying to connect the dots. [28:00] Mark: Like. No, I'm specifically talking about the vesting side. So if you give me $1,000 and I in a match and I pay $300 to the IRS for my tax liability on it, now I have 700 and now I leave. [28:13] Chad: Oh, you're paying it from the match? [28:15] Mark: I'm 50% vested. [28:17] Chad: What says you're paying it from the [28:19] Mark: match or the match Dollars, right? [28:22] Chad: Why? No, I gave you 1,000 bucks. It grossed up your income by that [28:26] Mark: much, and then you're going to deduct it from payroll. [28:29] Chad: You're just doing your taxes later. Down, everyone. Slow down. I know, but we got to talk about this, Greg. You're doing your taxes later after the fact and Your income was $1,000 higher and you do your taxes. [28:41] Mark: Yeah, I was making the assumption that it's coming off the top of the match. My. You're giving me a thousand bucks. I'm paying my tax liability on that thousand and it's going to drop me to 700 in the plan assets. [28:52] Chad: Oh, I don't think that's how it would work. But yeah, Hackler says move on because we don't, in a sense, we don't know enough about it. [28:58] Mark: But that's why you brought up a topic that we can't really discuss on purpose. [29:03] Chad: On purpose? Hackler? On purpose. Losing people, how many years? [29:10] Mark: I don't know, but he's acting like he's on the couch tonight. [29:13] Chad: I think it's a good point in that that all this confusion is solid. The value in our confusion is we all need to fucking figure this shit out. And I'm sure a lot of you out there need to figure it out too, but I'm again to close it. Roth is cool doing this on a match. It's a lot of fun. But let's keep looking out there and finding more details on it. [29:34] JD: By the way, though, sorry, last just to wrap it up, isn't it. Isn't it voluntary based on employer as well, so they don't. You don't have to do it. It's like a loan provision, Right? [29:44] Chad: And true. And I believe voluntary per that employee. That's how it was read. [29:49] Mark: Yeah, if it's going to be through payroll, yeah, for sure. So. So, which is why I circled back to wouldn't it be awesome if the employer could cover that tax hit? Jesus, Chad. [30:01] Chad: Yeah, go sell. [30:03] Mark: Just think about it, jd. Just think about it. [30:05] JD: Hey, by the way, Chad, you got a profit sharing contribution from our employer? [30:09] Mark: Yeah, Mark, only the non highly compensated folks get it. Ah, that's why they get one. Got it. [30:14] JD: Got it. [30:16] Chad: Let's mix up our little confusion with more confusion and play the lamer game. Game, Mark? Oh, actually, yes. Let's drink a Smirnoff first. Let's spin the wheel. [30:32] Mark: Perfect. [30:39] Chad: Echler's reading my. [30:47] Justin: Two weeks in a row. [30:48] Mark: Give it to him. [30:49] Chad: Come on, come on, come on, Rose. [30:52] Mark: Froze. Froze for us. [30:57] Chad: That's definitely. That wheel's been acting like a roulette wheel, you know, it's like it'll be red all the time for a while. We haven't a while. [31:05] Mark: Because I have a feeling Brandon has seen what happens when we go down that path and said, you know what? As a producer, I'm not even going to allow it to happen anymore. [31:13] Chad: No, Chad, Chad, that's not true. And I would like you to stop undermining the integrity of our show. You're making the audience feel like it's somehow rigged. It is a random motherfucking wheel, okay? That's the last I want to hear of it. [31:30] Mark: I don't understand how it can be [31:32] JD: or how that's regulated. So it's kind of like cryptocurrency. [31:37] Chad: Lamer game, Chad. Questioning the efficacy of the wheel of Ice. Mark, take over the show. All right, well, hit it up. Do I. Do I get my intro once again, [31:55] JD: I don't know why, jd, you thought that I was supposed to have the best ever lamer game today, so I'm [32:04] Chad: just gonna say I deliver, Mark, on LinkedIn. I said it was going to be the best ever. [32:08] Mark: I know. [32:08] Justin: We got faith. [32:10] JD: Really running out of ideas here. [32:11] Justin: This is what we need. That you can do it image. [32:15] JD: All right, first question. And this, you know, this, this is kind of directed at Chad a little bit here because I don't know what's going on in the world of baseball, but is it lame or are you game with a no hitter being thrown every night? Go sports, [32:36] Mark: dude. Obviously as a pitcher, I want to say that I'm game, but as someone who wants entertaining baseball, I know it's entertaining for me, but it is not entertaining for the other 99% of the population. So I am lame. Back to back. No hitters. I think this is the seventh on the season is not good for baseball. [32:57] JD: Justin. [32:58] Justin: I like it, man. [33:00] JD: Really? It's an accomplishment that's legit. Not the answer though. It's lame or game. [33:05] Justin: I think, like, it means game game, but okay, it's game. [33:09] JD: So say so say the word. [33:11] Justin: I just did. [33:11] JD: All right. J.D. [33:13] Mark: oh my gosh. What? Dude, you see the comments in the chat bar. I'm grow. I'm growing a loving relationship with many of you. Will says lower the mound. This is some good stuff. Lower the mount. That's what I was gonna ask Justin. I think it was Lauren that mentioned it in the chat bar. Was it more exciting to have the home run race thing? [33:37] Chad: Do you have the little sports chick, the boss in the moment? [33:40] Mark: It was the home run races or. [33:44] Chad: All right, can you just explain what's going on? [33:47] Justin: J.D. [33:47] JD: lamer game. [33:49] Chad: I said I pass. I'm passing on that one. [33:53] Mark: Yeah. [33:53] JD: You're a baseball fan. [33:54] Chad: Giants. Giants have the best, best record in baseball right now. Go Giants. [33:59] JD: All right, all right. Smashing beer cans on your forehead. Justin. Lamer game. [34:08] Justin: Lame as shit. Okay, I guess it depends on how old you are. If you're in your early 20s, you probably think it's really cool. [34:14] JD: Have you ever done it? [34:16] Justin: No. [34:17] Mark: Chad Lame. Not one time in my life. We're gonna ask that. [34:23] Justin: Do it. [34:23] Mark: J.D. [34:24] Chad: can you pre crack it a little? [34:27] Mark: All I've got is bottles tonight. [34:29] Chad: Let's see it. [34:32] Mark: Oh, that's why he wore that. JD Is that a 16 ounce can or is that a 12 ounce can? It's. [34:40] Chad: It's 16 ounce, but that doesn't work. [34:41] Mark: Yeah, that's gonna be tough. All right. [34:44] Chad: Oh, look at my father. You know, my father, like Jesus Christ. [34:49] JD: My sons just did it wearing sandals with jeans. This is mostly directed at men, which sounds horrible. [35:04] Chad: Those are. [35:04] JD: Those are slides. [35:09] Mark: Show us, Justin. [35:13] Justin: Dude, I live in Southern California. Of course. [35:15] JD: Of game Chad. [35:18] Mark: It's a tough one for me, but I'm going with game J.D. [35:22] Chad: that's. That's formal attire for going out to a nice restaurant for dinner. [35:27] JD: All right, lamer game JD I'll go to you first. I think you like to drink coffee. Driving to a Starbucks, pulling up up front, and then mobile ordering and waiting to go get your drink. Like, so you're not pre ordering. You get there in mobile order and then you go inside and get it instead of just going inside and ordering. [35:52] Chad: I've never done that, but if I could put myself in that person's perspective, I'm going to say you're using the tech. You don't want to go wait in line. I realized maybe you should. I'm game. I'm okay with that, Chad. [36:06] Mark: I'm game for sure. [36:08] Justin: All the game. [36:10] Mark: Are you not, Mark? Is this something in your life that frustrates you? [36:14] JD: No, that's the only way. I order coffee now. [36:16] Mark: I just. [36:16] JD: I just pull up, I mobile order, I sit in my car for 10 minutes, and then I go inside and get. [36:21] Justin: But you don't order it before you leave, so it's ready when you get there. And just. [36:24] JD: That's too much planning. Yeah. All right. FaceTiming some. Someone that FaceTimes you without proper heads up. So, like an unsolicited FaceTime. Who, Chad? [36:37] Chad: Who? [36:38] Mark: That's a very loaded question. [36:41] JD: I don't care if it's your wife, your, your daughter, your friend, your enemy. Jeez, Chad. [36:51] Mark: Well, it's a very loaded question. I'm gonna say in today's situa. I'm in. I'm game if I want to accept it or not. I can make my own decisions. [37:05] JD: Okay, it sounds like you're. It sounds like you're in the middle. You're not really giving me much. [37:09] Mark: I'm in. I said I'm in. [37:12] JD: J.D. [37:18] Chad: To be honest with you, if you did it to me, I would probably be creeped out. Like, oh, God, I don't want to video chat right now. Like, you know, I haven't done my hair, you know, whatever. But on the flip side, I feel like we're just humans. You just want to have a face to face. I'm game with it. [37:34] JD: I'm okay, Justin. [37:36] Justin: Yeah. Especially right now. We've been in Covid. Like maybe I just want to see your face. Haven't seen you in a long time. Now if it's a friend, that's where. Yeah, but if it's a random co, like not even co worker, like, you're FaceTiming an advisor. I guess that'd be a little weird. [37:49] Mark: Oh, that would be weird. [37:50] Justin: You know people I know, family, friends. Yeah, I can decline the call if I want. Totally. [37:55] Mark: Game. [37:56] JD: All right, last one. Somebody texting you five minutes before a Zoom meeting. Could be a meeting with an advisor. Point of sale, what have you before the meeting starts. 5 minutes for meeting starts. Asking if you're coming. [38:17] Mark: Wait, like a legitimate question. Asking if you're coming. [38:21] JD: 5. Like, let's say your meeting's at 3pm 255 text you. Are you coming? [38:28] Mark: Lame. For sure. [38:30] JD: Can we. Can we just normalize the fact that Zoom meetings start when they start? And being five minutes late, there should be a window there. Justin. [38:40] Justin: Yeah, it's lame. [38:42] JD: J.D. [38:43] Chad: we live in a world right now where we must be efficient. We have technologies. We have Outlook calendars, we have notifications. We have reminders. I don't need you to take part in it with your text messaging. I must be efficient. There's only so many hours in the day. Game or lame. All right. [39:04] JD: You know what they say. [39:06] Mark: You know what they say. Those were good. Those were good. Make you think questions, Mark. That was well done thought. [39:13] Chad: Very well done. [39:15] Mark: We appreciate you, Mark. We appreciate it. [39:16] Chad: Very good. Very, very good. [39:19] JD: I'm just a man of the people, [39:20] Mark: but, Mark, you're getting questions in the chat bar. They want to know what they say. Lauren wants to know you. [39:27] JD: Well, if you don't know, you'll. Then you don't. [39:30] Mark: I know Lauren doesn't. [39:32] JD: Mark, you did a. Lauren, you know, you know what they know what they say. You know they say what they know, you know. [39:39] Chad: You did a phenomenal job, Mark. Very proud of you. Could. Could well be the best game ever. And you are always keep the wheel of ice in high integrity in regards. So you're an awesome cast member. I'm trying to rip on Chad, but he's not. [39:57] Mark: You've been on me. [39:58] Chad: I enjoy Chad going to you again. Here we go. I want to talk about point of sale best practices. I'm an advisor. I call you, I say, hey, I've been dripping on this $3 million prospect. They reached out to me via email the other day and they want to meet with me. I've been telling them that maybe they should review their plan, take a look at stuff. They've bitten my lure. They want to set up a meeting in a couple weeks. I need your help, Chad. So I want. What I want us all to do now as a group, is take this through the stages on how you're going to help me be as successful as I can in that point of sale. Okay, where do we start? What are the first things you need from me to gather or prep or get everything in line to make sure that we crush it at this meeting? [40:50] Mark: My, My first comment would be path of least resistance. Get time. Just get time. Let us, let us come in as a team. If you feel comfortable talking 401k in depth, then go in by yourself. But get time to chat with them because your example there was they finally bit the lure. Don't go asking for a bunch of. At that point, don't reach out and say, we need your census, we need your fee disclosure, we need your assets broken down by investment. That's just going to slow down the process. Now, if you're, if you're a big producing advisor and you have, you know, clients waiting for you, then maybe do that to check whether or not they're serious. Otherwise, my recommendation would be get time, chat with them and build rapport. [41:36] Chad: That's what you want to do in initially. Go in initially, get a feel for them, maybe learn a bit more about their plan, their frustrations. Okay, great advice, but let's take it to the next level now. I went and did that. Everything went great. They like me, I like them. And now they're ready for me to come in and take a look at their $3 million plan. 40 participants. It's that principle. And I'm saying to you, Chad, I want to get in there, put my best game face on, show them the right types of products, kind of win this business. What types of things do I need to get from them? You know, they're four. Their enrollment book, their list of funds, their. I mean, what do you pick up? [42:17] Mark: First comment would be, as you just started to illustrate there, JD Set yourself on their side of the table, Be an advocate for them. Let them know that you're coming back with value regardless of outcome. Your job is to lift, open the hood, help them understand what they have and know if it is what you would recommend on the day you started consulting with them or if there's something that you would enhance. So in order to do that, what are you going to need? Depends on the scope and the level that you're going to get in there and lift open the hood. But the first thing I'm going to say, you want investments broken down. So you're get the assets broken down by investment so you can run review and see if it's prudent or not. And you want fee disclosure. Those two things are. Because once you get those two things, you're going to know where the investments are sitting and what the record keeper is that they're sitting with. And if you know this space, you're going to know the strengths and weaknesses. [43:10] Chad: No share class, therefore, you'll know expense ratio. [43:14] Mark: And if you know the record keeper, often you know the cost structure. Almost always. If I get a breakdown of investments, I can, I can, within 15 basis points, probably tell you what your costs are, because I know what the products are. With each investment, we can. Or with each program and we can back into it. If you get the fee disclosure, great. But those are two very important things. At least the breakdown of investments. You know, Bill, secondarily, the fee disclosure, [43:41] Chad: Bill in the chat says, listen, listen, listen, you've heard me get upset about this before. No PowerPoint, no proposals. And Bill, I agree with you and disagree with you at the same time. I do think listening is important. And I think to go in and present, you need to know, like, where their headspace is at. You need to know, like, are they interested in fees or are they more worried about their fiduciary responsibility? You know, do they want to improve their design? So I think, I think asking them questions around that and learning is great. But I really am trying to position the opposite here, Bill, which is I want Chad and his advisor to go in with a proposal, with a presentation, with a plan to win the business. And what I want to do is get into the strategy. Like, what are you going to look at now that you've got that stuff? Are you going to look at the. Is there too many? Is it a good target date fund suite? [44:34] Mark: Let me go ahead, let me comment, and then I'm going to turn it over to the rest of you guys. I agree with Bill that you don't want to go in with preconceived notions. And I think I've helped these guys learn that. What we want to do is be advocates for the client and go in with the ability to allow that meeting to go where the client will lead it. And what I mean by that is go in with the fee disclosure, go in knowing where their investments are. We go in knowing the cost structure, go in knowing if the design is weak. [45:04] Justin: But. [45:04] Mark: But you don't need to go in and present all that shit. You need to go in and uncover what is important to that client. And so go in prepared, but be ready to not talk about any of the shit you prepared. [45:15] Chad: Pivot. Well, I think and I want your honest opinion, Mark. If you go in and you and your advisor are looking at the funds and going, well, you know, the funds don't score so well, so this should be a certain game plan. We look. But then you walk in and you find out very quickly that the decision maker could give a shit about that concept, then you do have to have a plan B. And then I would argue you need a plan C and a plan D. But unlike what I think, what Bill's saying is I want those plans personally in my back pocket. I'm like a football coach with a football team. I've got my original game plan, and when that starts to not work right, I want to have a backup game plan to go to. But I got to come with some fucking real opinions and some real value. And this is not a fluffy Duffy, you know, flower festival where I just listen to their concerns and what they're worried about. I need to give them some fucking solutions and make some improvements for what's going on. Am I. I'm crazy? [46:12] JD: No, I mean, I would say it's kind of a happy medium, like we're all kind of giving our thoughts on. But if you'd come in with nothing, then you run the risk of looking ill prepared or you, like you didn't care to do any due diligence or look into anything. And also, I think very fair prior to going into, if a client's willing to share some of that information, that you can probably bet that they're truly committed to looking at alternatives versus just maybe feeling people out and considering other options. So, no, I mean, I agree. I think having that information, having something prepared where even if you don't go over, I heard and I saw and I agree with the whole. Don't have a proposal, don't have a PowerPoint that you have to read off of and have it fanned out to everybody, but have something you can slide across after or email them after to where they can show that you actually dove into the specifics of their plan, that you gave a shit and that you actually came with information, but you didn't necessarily read off a piece of [47:19] Chad: paper, that's what I want from you. Like, if you guys came to me to sell me a new paperless system for my company, and I know very little about paperless stuff, I don't necessarily need you to listen to. [47:33] JD: The worst thing is that there's no paper. [47:36] Chad: I don't need you to listen to what I don't know, because I don't know shit. You're the experts in this stuff. So I need you to show me to Mark's point that you've analyzed some things, and you can show me how I can have a better plan or maybe what I'm missing and I'm naive and I don't understand what's happening. And of course, it can't be done in a sales salesman, saleswoman way. But I do need you to bring that to me. That's why I'm going to want to hire you, is that you're an advocate for me that can give me something better. [48:10] Mark: And my point a moment ago, JD was come in prepared, have that, but don't feel that that's what you have to present. [48:20] Chad: Fair enough. [48:21] Mark: Don't feel like you have to walk in and show them everything. I've. And I've talked to the guys about this numerous times. I see too many advisors closing past the close, like, the client is committed. And now you're going to bring up the prudence of their investments like, no, the fucking client committed. [48:36] Chad: You did it. [48:37] Mark: Stop. Stop trying to beat down what they currently have. Listen to what the client is telling you. And what I see is many advisors prepare for that meeting. And they go in thinking, I have to do this. This is the only way to win the business. Someone mentioned in the chat bar, hey, they took your meeting for a reason. Sell on that reason they took your meeting. You need to sell on the reason that they're giving you an open opportunity to discuss, not on the reason in which they took your meeting. They took your meeting because you go to church with their cfo. I keep hearing this, damn it. [49:12] Chad: I cannot stop with this. I keep hearing this let them talk and listen thing. And we've touched on this. We've touched on this before. I mean, even Greg saying it now. And of course, I understand the concept there. And I absolutely want to make sure that I'm not shoving my ideas on the client. I definitely want to customize it to their needs. And so I need to listen and find out what those needs are. But please don't think that you should go into a point of sale just there to listen and advocate them talking more. You're there to solve problems. You're there to show them that you're the problem solver. And that's more than just listening to what they think. That's about delivering. And I believe that needs a strategy, that needs someone coming in there going, look, I've looked at what you have. This is where the deficiencies are. This is where I think they can be fixed and being able to pivot like Chad said on those, like maybe they're not so Interested in getting a 15 basis points cost savings. And that was your whole game plan. You blew it. So now what you need to do is shift and maybe they're more. Excuse me. [50:17] Mark: No, I didn't mean to interrupt you jd. I was going to say though, the worst are the meetings where folks continue to ask questions. They're going in and not to step on you. Aaron, that mentioned you won startup plans with a yellow pad of paper because I agree, especially in the startup space, very different conversation. But when you roll into a meeting and all you do is ask questions and then they give you content to discuss with them and then you keep asking questions, you're not actually getting to the client's needs and that's the worst. Those that are listening too much are missing the opportunity to actually help the client. [50:55] Chad: And I think that's key. [50:56] Mark: Unfortunately I see that fairly often. [50:58] Chad: Now before we wrap this, maybe we can take some of this into the after show. What about broker of record? So we talk a lot about how a broker of record maybe is a really smart solution. I had a question for you. So chat. What about just positioning broker of record change? Is that a smarter approach or is that more difficult because you need to now sell yourself as being this kick ass advisor as opposed to getting them all excited about a new product or lower fees or this or that. [51:31] Mark: I, I always tell our advisor partners when we're helping them run an RFP that the damn that the, the default like the, the least that we should be doing is winning. Broker of record meaning there is a role. The client brought us in for a reason. It's because there is a missing piece in this and often you as the advisor can be the connector to those things. So a broker of records should, should in all likelihood be the minimal piece that we walk out with. But if we're looking at what they currently have and we're properly analyzing it and to Lauren's point earlier, bringing in multiple options and you're showing them what the market will yield for them from a provider perspective and costs and services, you in all likelihood can move that plan. But don't feel like a broker of record is a. Is a lost art. Don't feel like a broker of record is a lost period. You're able to get in there now, button things up, try to fix it, try to help it, and then take it to another team if needed. [52:36] Chad: I like Bill's comments. I guess everyone's reading it so I don't have to say it over. But Bill, that's cool. He's broker, our advisor that went and said, hey, let me try it for 60 days and if it doesn't work, change him back. I always like this approach of you can go in with this big strategy that I was trying to lay out today where you're going to go look after, attack the target date funds or attack the fee structure or show them a better fiduciary solution. And then you get to the end of it all and the client's like, wow. Like, that was a lot of information and it was good and that was impressive and we've learned a lot. But, you know, changing to you or to all this stuff you talked about seems like too much to swallow, too much to take on. To me, that's when you reach into your back pocket and pull out the broker of record option and you say, okay, look, let's keep it where it's at. Let me try to get in there and fix some of these things that I just told you I didn't think were great, but maybe you don't have to move from them. Maybe you don't have to change this all all at once here, but hire me. And hopefully they're like, oh, wow, I didn't know it could be that easy. I thought I had to move everything to hire you. You know, [53:41] Mark: the client will appreciate that. Jd. Sorry. Go Justin. Before I make my. [53:46] Chad: Justin, don't ever say, go ahead and chat. You want to talk, you take command, Justin. [53:50] Justin: Damn it. I'm just too nice of a guy. No, in what I was going to get at is I think it often, not often, but occasionally will vary depending on the situation. I mean, sometimes the clients could have gone through a hell of a transition two years ago that they hated and you go in there trying to pitch, hey, we're going to blow things up, you know, and change your entire record keeper. [54:08] JD: And TPA is out. [54:09] Justin: That could be very. That could actually lose you shit the deal versus going in and just getting broke a record. You know, start slow, do what Bill said. I think it's a great idea. Test it out and see if you can fix their issues or bring them a better level of service than they currently have with their. Their existing advisor. [54:25] Chad: So to my original point, Dustin, I think if you walk in with broker of record as your. As your strategy now, this is a pretty tough mountain to climb because you've got to then and you can do it, but you got to sell yourself as this bomb ass advisor. Right. And I'm sure there's a lot of people tuning in tonight that can do that, that can show their system, show what they do, show why they're better, show that their clients a success. But I think it might be an alternative way is to go in and show all those things that we talked about earlier. A different record keeper, a better record keeper, a better core menu, a better fiduciary. And then have it be too much. And then you relieve their stress by saying, but we don't have to do that. All right? Now you can just hire me. And they've already. You've proven to them your expertise. Right. You didn't have to sell it to them on a brochure. You proved it to them in the last 35 minutes. And then they're like, wow, you really do know your shit. Okay, maybe we should just have you take over, but we'll put all that other stuff on ice for now. [55:26] Mark: Yeah. Your advocacy for them. And to Bill's point earlier, you tell them and I've had advisors do this and it's successful. Let me try to fix what you currently have. Because you brought me in here because something is broken. Let me try to fix what you currently have and if I'm not able to do it, let's bring in my team which I know will be able to do it. And to a point that was made in the chat bar too. JD as advocates for our clients, which is the advisor community. There's many of you in here that are commenting that have seen us do this. I will sure ship. Position a broker of record if it's what I think is best. We chatted about one earlier today. JD that the plan is with writing company. They're happy with the tpa. They are. Yeah. Mark. Yeah, me. They're happy with the tpa. So what am I doing? Advisor, another one. I am saying, hey, position your services. They're not happy with the record keeper. Help them understand the benefits of the rfp. [56:26] Justin: Yep. [56:26] Mark: Three accounts, the request for proposal that you're running and find the right team to make this work for you. And that that clients will recognize that when you're willing to wear the sword to do what is right for them, they will recognize that. [56:43] Chad: Well, the advisors will appreciate you putting them first. Right. And not it'll come back full circle. Go chop our champion. We'll close it and then we can have some fun in the after show for a little bit. Mark. I'm gonna go straight to you, rub guy. Your vote for chat bar champion Aaron. Okay. Yeah. You're going Aaron, too. [57:10] Justin: Her and someone else. So go and say yours. [57:12] Chad: Go. Justin, you're up. [57:14] Mark: Bill. I just wrote it in the chat bar as well. I'm going Bill. [57:21] Chad: Choices. Those are great choices. I'm gonna back you. I was gonna say Aaron, but now that you said Bill, I think Bill is a great choice. That doesn't matter whether I choose between those two, so. All right. Hey, head to head. [57:34] Mark: I had a good night too. Sorry, Aaron, but you have my expectations. [57:38] Chad: I just feel like I. I wanted to vote for Bill because I disagreed with some of the. His ship. But then he was so polite. He just kept going and talking and it's great he didn't. He's got thick skin. I like that. Brandon's setting it up. [57:51] Mark: He's worried about your side camera, which I like. What are you drinking there? [57:54] Chad: Jd, vodka, oj, and Coors lights. [57:59] Justin: Wait, Chad, who did you pick? [58:00] Mark: Bill? [58:01] Chad: Oh, it's neck and neck, bro. [58:04] Mark: I can't. I can't vote. [58:08] Chad: I can't on my phone. Am I going to vote for Aaron, though? [58:15] Justin: I want to see the view of your. Your phone taped to your. [58:18] Mark: Your computer. You really. You tape your phone to your computer? Oh, that's. [58:34] Chad: Sorry, Bean. The winner is Bill. Bill, you are chat bar champion. Congrats. And, yeah, we'll send you some guitarholic swag in sometime around the next presidential election. Okay, thank you, everyone for tuning in to another episode of Retire the Star wars edition. And we'll do a little after show after we play a song. It's a weird song. I'll tell you why we chose it in the after show if you stick around. But thanks for tuning in, everybody. What do they say on Star Wars? Peace and prosper. [59:17] Justin: You thought you got Star Trek, right? [59:19] Chad: I don't know. Who gives a shit? [59:27] JD: To the right. [59:37] Chad: Where does it go from here?

Show notes

Should cryptocurrency be in your client's plan menu? JD Carlson and the crew tackle fiduciary risk, volatility concerns, and the new Roth match provisions from SECURE Act 2.0, the strategies advisors need to know.

In this episode of Retiroholics, JD Carlson dives into two critical topics reshaping 401(k) plan design: cryptocurrency access and Rothification of employer matches.

First up: crypto in retirement plans. The team explores whether Bitcoin and digital assets belong on plan menus, examining fiduciary responsibilities, volatility comparisons to emerging markets, and the real operational barriers recordkeepers and plan providers are throwing up. It's a candid conversation about market reality versus compliance caution.

Then they unpack Rothification, a game-changing (and complex) SECURE Act 2.0 feature that lets participants receive employer match contributions as Roth-designated funds. The tax implications, vesting questions, and plan design challenges are still being clarified, and advisors need to understand how to position this with plan sponsors and participants.

Throughout, the crew balances technical compliance concerns with the practical realities advisors face in the field. Expect the casual, beer-fueled banter Retiroholics is known for, plus a lamer game segment and deep dives into point-of-sale strategy and broker-of-record positioning.

Perfect for 401(k) advisors, TPAs, plan sponsors, and recordkeepers staying ahead of regulatory changes and market trends.

MORE FROM RETIREHOLICS
Full episode notes & transcript: https://retireholics.com/episodes/rothification-of-the-match-crypto-in-401k/
All past episodes: https://retireholics.com/episodes/
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Retireholics is the show changing the retirement industry one beer at a time. Hosted by JD Carlson and co-hosts, covering 401(k) plan design, fiduciary responsibility, fees, investments, and industry news for retirement plan advisors and professionals.