ERISA Litigation, Advisor Fees & Financial Wellness

[0:00] JD: Coming to the Stage of Football 2019 [0:02] Chad: Resources Conference in sunny Los Angeles in [0:05] Speaker C: the amazing Palos Verdes Terranea Resort. [0:08] Chad: It's everybody's favorite from Retireholics. [0:14] JD: Every episode of Retireaholics. If you've ever watched it before, show me a Raise your hands if you've watched it. Yes. [0:20] Chad: Yeah, there we go. [0:22] JD: My daughter didn't raise her hand because [0:24] Chad: she probably hasn't watched an episode. [0:26] JD: That's kind of bullshit. Gummy. You've watched it. While I've watched it, I've forced you to. Every episode it's got one of these guys. Well, this time we tasked the conference, the people running the conference. Hey, can you pick the beer of the episode for us? Can you see this? [0:44] Chad: It's a really nice conference, by the way. Let's acknowledge that. [0:47] JD: Oh, we're stoked to be here. So they picked the beer of the episode. Usually, Chad would talk about the history of the brewery, how it tastes, what he likes about it. They gave us Coors Life. Hey, they are $14 a piece here. [1:03] Chad: True. So, Chad, can you take us through the rich? [1:06] JD: It's our pregame drink. That's what we drink backstage. And now it's our beer of the episode. I want to introduce you to someone new for the show. We've got Skyler Stokes right over here. He's this surfer looking dude out of San Diego and he is the newest member of Retireholics. You'll see him on future episodes. He's and the newest member of the pdc. And that's where new members sit over [1:29] Chad: here in the corner. Yeah. [1:30] JD: Last night we were gonna do our prep and I was flying in late and we were gonna meet at 10:30 to do the prep. And I was getting off the plane and everyone was kind of complaining that we're gonna meet late. And Scott was like, well, why don't we just do it tomorrow morning early? I'm like, you don't know the Retireholics. We drink the night before and we hashed this out till 2 in the morning. [1:52] Chad: I got a text from my wife at 1:30 that said, I just woke up where everything okay. [1:57] JD: Skyler's gonna help us out because we've got another thing going on. It's a game we play. We used to call it Word of the Episode. We had Fred Reich on the show, the legend Fred Reich on Retireholics. Never thought it would happen in my lifetime. [2:12] Speaker D: Oh, thank you. [2:13] JD: Thank you. We're fricking legit. And he decided to call it the prohibited word of the episode. I thought that was really funny, really cute. He said, hey, it's the word of the episode. That's the prohibited word of the episode. So Skyler's going to help us out because when you say the prohibited word of the episode, you must drink from these little guys here. And we're going to be filling these up with what? [2:41] Chad: Cinerator. It's described as hot cinnamon flavored whiskey. [2:45] JD: Sounds tasty. [2:46] Chad: There's four of them in the state of California. [2:48] JD: Sounds tasty. So it's important you understand these rules and help us out. Help Skylar out. Skyler's going to keep track of who says it, who says it. When I put it out on LinkedIn, I wanted to see what people thought would be a good word of the episode. And someone out there said, hey, why not just do two words? The episode. Why not? [3:06] Chad: Yeah. Cool. [3:06] JD: Because you're not on the show. And I agreed because these guys have gotten pretty good at not saying the word of the episode. It's the guests. Sorry, Janya, where. Yeah, it's the guests. That's. You just don't say much with the word of the episode. So we're going to do two. And I'm gonna say it right now for the last time. If you. [3:25] Chad: It won't be your last time. [3:26] JD: And. Or the guests say fiduciary or she screams participant, you're gonna drink from the. What's it called? [3:38] Chad: Cinerator. [3:39] JD: Incinerator. I'm gonna add something to it though. I'm gonna buddy you guys up. We've got three guests today, okay. And I want to. To connect you in some way and connect the guests. So you're going to be like teammates. Mark, you will be Janya's teammate. If Janya says the word, you'll drink with her. Absolutely. Okay. Jania, if Mark says word, you don't have to drink with him, but you should. If. If Phil says the word, you will drink. You're his drinking buddy. [4:17] Chad: Yeah. [4:18] JD: Got a new buddy. [4:19] Chad: Scares me. [4:20] JD: Chad. Phil, you did great back there. [4:22] Chad: I don't know how many times you said participant, but keep it. Hey, buddy. [4:25] JD: There you go. Yes. [4:28] Chad: Get started, pal. [4:30] JD: That, Skyler, is how it works. [4:33] Chad: Brandon, where are you? Part Justin, part remember? [4:36] JD: Is he here? And Mark will be. No, Justin will be teamed with Brandon. With Brandon Cutler. Okay, we're gonna play another game. Show them this, Chad. We went to the bar earlier. We asked the woman, she seemed shocked. Can you make us the nastiest frickin drink you can think of? She accomplished that. For those of you who are curious. [4:59] Chad: We have gin, whiskey, rum, tomato Sauce, orange juice. [5:04] JD: A1. [5:05] Chad: A1. [5:06] JD: Thank you. [5:08] Chad: Jalapenos. Tabasco. Tabasco. Chopped up jalapenos. [5:15] JD: It's garnished with some olives, though. That's good. [5:20] Chad: Justin, you need me to refill that? [5:21] JD: So what will happen is. Go ahead and drink it. I mentioned that they were on teams, right? So whichever guest says the prohibited word the most, Whoever's tied to that guest will have to drink that. [5:35] Chad: Notice he is not tied to any guest. Cheater. [5:39] JD: There's three guests. Three people. It made sense. [5:42] Janya Stout: Easy math. [5:43] JD: Easy math. Right? And that thing's nasty. We'll do it at the end of the show. Okay. It's a light with that. That's the pre show banter. Wasn't that funny, but whatever. Janya Stouts. Some people call her the Three billion dollar Woman. [5:58] Speaker D: Four. [5:58] JD: I guess she's getting to four or whatever. Janice, give her a round of applause. Yeah. [6:07] Chad: Hopefully your mic works. Now. [6:08] JD: I'm guessing we're sharing this? Is that what we're doing, Tech guys? Yeah. Yes. [6:13] Janya Stout: We'll just do this. [6:14] JD: Why isn't my teammate sitting next to me? Can you get Janya a beer so she can play along? I also need her. [6:21] Janya Stout: Her. [6:23] JD: Hang in there. Your word. Your prohibited word of the episode. [6:26] Chad: Hey, I. I was kind enough to say we should give you the option of cinerator or tequila. You can tell me if you're scared of the scenerator. We can transfer over to the tequila. [6:36] JD: She's good. [6:37] Janya Stout: Whatever. [6:37] JD: Jd, can you remind me what are the words again? He's trying to trick me. Skyler, can you remind Janya what the words of the episode are? Nice try, Mark. Am I allowed to? Yeah, you're allowed to. Am I allowed to? [6:56] Chad: Really? Stage fiduciary and participant. [7:00] JD: It sounds so sweet coming off your lips, Skyler. [7:04] Chad: Okay, it's because I haven't drank anything yet. [7:06] JD: Jenny, I want to talk first about. You're the freaking Napa president. What? That's gnarly. So let's talk to you first about your big Napa president job. And then we'll talk to Janya, the financial advisor. Okay. Napa. I know they throw cool conferences in with, like, country music. [7:32] Chad: We've never been invited, but we've never been here at these big parties. [7:35] JD: If you know anyone there, it's kind [7:36] Chad: of a perfect fit. [7:37] JD: Maybe you hook us up. But speak to an advice on how many times you say the word. Oh, remember the words. [7:45] Janya Stout: I know I pay attention for a second now. [7:47] JD: I think. Good Reminder there, Mark. From an advisor's perspective, why be a member? How do I participate? [7:58] Chad: That is a flavor of the word. [8:00] JD: Nice try. Nice try. [8:03] Chad: We decided that's a flavor of the word participate. [8:07] JD: You said timeout. Let's let the. Can I just let the audience vote? [8:12] Chad: That's a flavor of the word. [8:14] JD: That's one, [8:23] Chad: Two. [8:23] JD: Wow. [8:25] Chad: That's fantastic. [8:27] JD: And dare I say, like, do they ask themselves, like, what's in it for me? Like, is there some ROI on this? Talk to me about Napa. [8:35] Janya Stout: Sure. I mean, I think there's a couple of reasons most people want to get involved with Napa. One could just be to hang out with really cool people and, you know, hear what they're doing from a best practices perspective. Great events, but really just kind of bouncing ideas around each other. The other thing that I think you can't forget is Napa's main mission is to really help lead what goes on in Capitol Hill. And we just got back from the fly in. I know. I saw a lot of people here that were there last week. Vince and some other folks. So, I mean, we really do have a voice. And it's pretty amazing, at least for me, to see that we can really persuade things to be drafted the way we think they should be drafted. [9:24] JD: Beautiful. Very cool. Very cool. [9:26] Chad: Jd, your lav mic's working. See how cool they typed that? [9:30] JD: It's all you. [9:31] Janya Stout: Oh, okay. [9:32] JD: Oh, they're talking to me on this little screen. [9:35] Chad: It's big time. It's big time. [9:37] JD: Send me some messages. So talk to us about the conferences. Yeah. [9:43] Janya Stout: So we. I mean, we've got a ton of conferences now. Obviously, Napa Summit is the big one, and this year it's in Orlando. What was that? [9:49] Chad: Who's it for? [9:50] Janya Stout: It's for advisors. Financial advisors. There's no good. [9:55] JD: You're good. [9:56] Janya Stout: Yeah. Just make it trick me. Yeah. [9:58] JD: Hey, just so you know, Jason Roberts thought he had it under wraps. Like, he's like, I got this. [10:04] Janya Stout: I actually think I'm gonna have this. Can we make a bet? If I can make it through the whole 20 minutes, what's the bet? [10:09] JD: There's a crazy drink on the table. [10:11] Janya Stout: I can do it. Without saying those two words. [10:13] JD: I'll bet you anything you want about $4 billion. Your presidency. [10:19] Janya Stout: I actually. I think I could do it. [10:21] JD: I will. How about it depends what kind of [10:23] Janya Stout: questions you ask me. [10:24] JD: But we're at Napa next year. [10:25] Janya Stout: What was that? [10:26] Chad: If you lose, we're at Napa next year. [10:28] Janya Stout: Okay, I'll tell Brian Grass. We have to do that, one of [10:31] JD: those B level country music people and put us up there. Okay. [10:34] Janya Stout: Well, you' right. This would be a lot more entertaining. [10:38] JD: So sorry, we're. We're distracting. [10:40] Janya Stout: That's right. Napa Summit this last year. It was in Las Vegas. It was awesome if you all attended. We have. We started doing these after hour after dark events. [10:52] JD: Seems like a big party. [10:53] Janya Stout: Like. Oh, yeah. So it's right up your alley. I think you guys should sneak in. If you don't get invited, that's a [10:59] JD: good way to kick out of an hour. Yeah. [11:01] Janya Stout: I mean, if you're an advisor, you can be an advisor. Right. You advise advisors. I mean, advisor's a broad term. Right. But anyway, summit's awesome. It's big. We had 2,000 advisors there, so the biggest ever. But we have other great conferences. We just did the women in retirement conference. Yay, women. [11:27] JD: Can I stop you? I had serious FOMO about that stuff. You do all these cool graphics. You have all these people there. I see all you guys are really good at social media. You're leading karaoke stuff. Like, I want to go. Yeah. [11:40] Janya Stout: Well, it's funny you say that because at the end of the conference, I was telling some of my women tribe, I was like, we need to have a man conference. Right. Because, like, we just keep doing all these cool things. I feel bad. Like, we need to do stuff. I thought you were saying you need [11:57] JD: to have a man there. I was like, I need no, like [11:59] Janya Stout: a man conference and teach you guys how to soul sing. Like, we cry, we hug. It's a lot. [12:06] JD: It's right up JD's alley. [12:07] Janya Stout: Yeah. So I know. I went back to the office and I was telling my male counterparts. I'm like, it was awesome. Like, everyone was sharing and we were crying and they're like, that sounds awful. But it's a wonderful event. We're actually, we're flipping it to happen in January, so, like, it's always been in June. And that's an awful time of the year to do it with graduations and all the other conferences we have. So we, we're actually having it again this January. Maybe we could still have you guys on stage. [12:37] JD: We're free in January. [12:38] Janya Stout: I mean, as long as you just come and go. [12:40] Chad: I was planning to take that Monday off. [12:41] Janya Stout: Maybe if you wear wigs. And then the other conference. [12:44] JD: We accept your invitation, we'll go. We have a $50,000 booking appearance fee, but it's good. [12:50] Janya Stout: You would be our highest paid speaker then. [12:53] JD: Deal builder. All we want is free Beer. [12:57] Janya Stout: We'll show up if it's Coors Light. That's easy. Yeah. [13:02] JD: All right, let's shift. Let's shift to Janya, the super Advisor. [13:07] Chad: The nearly 4 billion super 3 billion dollar woman. [13:10] JD: I'm sorry. I don't mean to make you uncomfortable. You're covers of magazines, and now you're like this keynote person running around everywhere. Did I mention president of Napa? Like, you're so cool. I recently listened to you on a podcast with Michael Kitces, and I frigging loved it. [13:32] Janya Stout: Thank you. [13:33] JD: Like, I sat there. It was pretty long. [13:36] Janya Stout: Yeah. [13:36] JD: But I really got to understand your business model and in lots of areas, and it got really deep. I feel like. [13:46] Chad: Like you were incredibly open. [13:47] JD: A lot of people get on podcasts, and you just get surface level stuff. [13:50] Janya Stout: Right. [13:50] JD: I feel like you really opened up and shared how you run your practice. Kitces doesn't understand retirement plans that much. [13:59] Janya Stout: No, but he tried. I thought he did a good job for what he is. Right? [14:05] JD: Yeah, he's a stud. He gets out so much great content. And I love that podcast. One of the things that he loved the most was your stewardship report. It's just a fancy way of seeing you guys record what you're doing and you show your clients that you're doing things. Moving the needle. Can you talk to us more about the stewardship report? [14:29] Janya Stout: Yeah. The stewardship report was kind of born for two reasons. One, probably about five or six years ago, we moved to flat fees, Right. So there wasn't, you know, as assets grow, we still made the same fee. So we needed to have a mechanism that gave us the ability to raise our fee without those uncomfortable conversations. So how we do our pricing and this will feed into the stewardship, we do flat fee guaranteed for two years, and at the end of the two years, we provide a stewardship report. And in that stewardship report, we break down all the things that we do. So, you know, we always have the baseline when we bring the client in. What's the. What are the fees? You know, anything from all the different fees, record keeping, advisory and fund costs. [15:18] JD: Do you guys do any, like, 338, 321. Tell me a little bit about that. [15:24] Janya Stout: So. Well, that's all. Oh, he's trying. See, I'm gonna win this if you keep giving me hints. I'm not gonna. [15:32] JD: No, you don't have to answer that question. [15:33] Janya Stout: Yeah, you had me. If you hadn't made that facial expression. [15:36] JD: You're starting to scare me. I don't have 4 billion. Go on. [15:39] Janya Stout: So anyway, so stewardship report just. And the other reason why we did this. Well, so let me finish that thought. So we do the stewardship report, and then we ask for a raise in the same document, and then it's pretty hard for them to say no. [15:57] JD: You're showing. What's the statistic specifically, how many people have said no? [16:01] Janya Stout: Nobody said no. [16:02] JD: That's pretty impressive. [16:02] Chad: Kudos. [16:05] Janya Stout: And you know what it does? It keeps us all honest. And it helps you really take a temperature check. Sometimes you get to say you have to sit across the table from your client and say, am I worthy of getting a raise? And here are the things we do. And when you're putting that stewardship report together, if you haven't done anything, it looks pretty bad. So that's all. Our relationship managers are constant. Everything's built around the stewardship report because they don't want to get caught at the end of those two years with nothing on the paper. [16:38] JD: I never thought about it like that. In a. In a sense, it's kind of a. It's a security measure for all of you. Like, are we doing our job? Are we doing enough? Because if you're trying to make sure that stewardship report looks good, and it's a. [16:50] Chad: It's a motivator for your relationship people, because now they're driven to make sure they're hosting those meetings and seeing those folks. [16:55] Janya Stout: Right. [16:56] JD: Even though the participants don't like it. [16:58] Janya Stout: He wants to drink. I feel bad. [17:04] JD: I'll drink a beer. Suck at this. [17:06] Janya Stout: I'm good at it. [17:07] Chad: Do you guys tell them in the beginning of the relationship, hey, this is guaranteed for two years, and then we're [17:12] Janya Stout: going to renegotiate or it's written in our service agreement. Yep. So I know some do. Cola adjustments is another way to kind of get like, a little lift in the plan. [17:22] JD: Mark, that's cost of living. What's the A then? [17:25] Janya Stout: And it's. I. I will say, like, not everyone on the team thinks that just Coke, we should do it. This. I mean, not that they don't think we should do it, but there's been some that say, why don't we just take the easy way out and do a cola, right. [17:39] JD: Or a Dr. Pepper. [17:40] Janya Stout: I know it's risky because we've got to ask our clients because colas just happen no matter what, if you're doing a good job or not. But it's great because if you see the way they react when you're asking for the raise, you can tell like, are they happy with us or not happy? [17:55] Chad: What are you. What are you putting into this report to prove that you've moved the needle, You've made an impact. [18:00] Janya Stout: So it's broken into sections. So there's all everything around education. So that's going to be like participation rates, deferral rates. [18:08] JD: Woo. [18:09] Chad: Banging her into that one. [18:11] Janya Stout: So you asked me that question just to get that. [18:14] Chad: I mean, I genuinely want to know. I listen to five. Oh, so good. [18:17] Janya Stout: I trusted you. Oh, wait, I don't have to drink, right? You didn't. Isn't there a bet? [18:22] JD: Wait, Skyler, wait. Wasn't there a bet? [18:24] Chad: There was. [18:25] JD: Count one for her, right? Cheers. [18:27] Janya Stout: Oh, cheers. [18:27] JD: Cheers. I totally disagree with that. [18:32] Chad: You said any flavor of said word. [18:35] JD: Oh, so. So all of. So, Janya. No, we're not. We just do. We do half. This is two in one. [18:43] Janya Stout: I didn't have it. [18:44] JD: Fill her up. Fill her up. [18:45] Chad: Welcome to the stage. [18:47] Speaker D: It's all good. [18:48] JD: It's all going down to this. She's an overachiever. Yes. [18:54] Chad: That stewardship report. I do want to know. [18:55] JD: Chad needs the details. I want to have fun. Go ahead. [18:58] Janya Stout: So we'll have success. I'm trying to think of the right words to say without getting into trouble carefully. Like, how do we move the needle from outcomes? Right. So the amount of people that are in the plan, the deferral amounts, you know, we track that and let's face it, it's hard to move those needles sometimes, especially if you get a client that's already got auto enrollment, auto escalation. You're not going to make dramatic changes, at least on a year by year basis. It's really hard. So, you know, it's other things that we do, like budget seminars or workshops or pre retiree workshops, things like that, that we can. So to your point, it keeps us constantly looking at, like, what can we add to this to make it different? Then there's a whole thing around fees and then there's a whole section on compliance. So I love you guys because, like, you got. Well, I love you anyway. But you probably know a lot about Erisa, right? Yeah. Somebody told me the other day, they're like, jd, he's really smart too. Like, as if I didn't think he was smart already. I was like, he does sit on [20:11] Chad: a stage and drink beer. So it is questionable. [20:13] Janya Stout: Yeah. No, but, you know, well, that's maybe a conversation for another time. I. I used to work on the bundled side of the business. I know that's a bad word, right? [20:22] JD: Oh, go ahead. [20:23] Janya Stout: And then I. Before I started my own company, I worked for a firm that was a tpa, and I had a new appreciation for tpa. [20:33] Chad: We have a question in the audience. [20:34] JD: We don't do audience questions now we do. So you were talking about the number of sponsors, right? Of all the different plans. Right? That's what you're just talking about, right? The number of people in the plan? [20:47] Janya Stout: Yeah. [20:47] JD: Is that what you meant? [20:48] Janya Stout: Yes. Well, not. [20:50] JD: Hey, how dare you? [20:52] Janya Stout: Is he a plant? [20:53] JD: He's trying to set you up. [20:55] Janya Stout: No, I know. [20:56] JD: So what do you. I don't understand what you're talking about. Can you explain, folks? [21:00] Chad: Right. [21:01] Janya Stout: He's trying to get me, isn't he? [21:03] Chad: He's trying to bait you. [21:05] Janya Stout: I'm trying to see how many people are actively contributing to the plan. [21:13] Chad: Job well done. Job well done. [21:15] JD: This is why I always say, don't encourage audience participation. Oh, I love it. I love it. They suck at it. They're not good at it. Sorry, bro. I mean, but that was kind of bad. No, that's really good. By the way, I want to remind you, you do owe me 4 billion. [21:30] Janya Stout: Okay. [21:33] JD: Take checks, whatever you want to do. [21:35] Chad: So I do want you to hit on the last piece that's in there, because I don't think he did, because it ties directly into what we do, which is compliance. [21:43] Janya Stout: Compliance, yeah. [21:44] JD: So. [21:44] Janya Stout: And you probably heard this on the podcast. Like, we spend more time talking to our clients about correcting issues, so we have an ERPA on our team. So we do voluntary corrections. We also sign over as power of attorney for any IRS agents and things like that. So we get pretty heavy into the compliance side. So we're reporting on any time. Like, all those little fixes we helped you with, you know, these are the things that are. [22:12] Chad: We constantly look for what we call not your typical advisor hashtag, notyourtypical advisor. I don't see anybody else getting deep into the compliance world from an advisory role. So kudos to you. And is it making an impact? Is it a differentiator for you? [22:25] Janya Stout: Yeah, I would say where it's a differentiator is on the retention side. So on the sales side, I think we all sound the same, but, like, once you've experienced what we do, and I'm sure you guys would agree with this statement, I think every single plan out there has problems. It's just a matter of when you find them. Like, they're all just. I can find an issue in every plan. [22:47] JD: I actually appreciated the fact that you said a Day in the life. We put out fires constantly because sometimes, [22:54] Chad: like on a day to day when [22:55] JD: you're doing that, you kind of feel like I'm spinning my wheels. [22:58] Janya Stout: But it's. [22:58] JD: It's from someone of your stature. That's really reassuring to hear and I appreciate you just saying that. That's very heartfelt. Mark. Let's scream. Now you can go. [23:09] Speaker D: Okay. [23:09] JD: We do. [23:10] Chad: Because it's only one. [23:11] JD: I would like to keep you up here for the entire show. Yeah, but we got these other guys that have to come up here. Not nearly as valuable as you. [23:18] Janya Stout: I only failed once. I did good, but I did a double shot. [23:21] JD: So you crushed. [23:22] Janya Stout: It was like I did. [23:23] Chad: And there. I had some other really good baiting questions for you. But once I got you once, it was good. [23:28] Janya Stout: Is that what is. Usually you only get somebody once. [23:31] Chad: Oh, no, no. Normally. [23:34] Janya Stout: Okay. [23:34] JD: Jason Roberts had seven. I was seriously worried they were going to kick him off of his flight, that he was volunteer. I thought he was gonna be in the headlines. Thank you for being here. Hold your applause. Don't forget, you promised us that we're on the big stage at. Now. [23:53] Janya Stout: I said at the women's conference. Right? Didn't I say that? I never promised. [23:56] JD: That's a big stage. I've got a lot of witnesses. I said, and you owe me four billion. Four billion, Tanya. Four billion. [24:05] Janya Stout: Okay. [24:06] JD: And I'm. I'm psyched that you're taking care of your participants. [24:10] Chad: I feel like I need to try mine as well. I'm going to say fiduciary. I don't know how you got. [24:15] JD: Fiduciary rules. [24:16] Janya Stout: I mean, I don't use that word in just regular conversation. [24:19] JD: Can we get the little graphic? Who's doing the graph? Skyler? [24:23] Chad: Oh, that. [24:23] JD: Get that one. You get Chad's house. [24:25] Chad: That adds to my. [24:27] JD: I would like you to do two things. Welcome our new guest Phil Troyer to the stage and thank Janya for spending some time with us. [24:36] Chad: That is not good, by the way. That is really not good. [24:39] Speaker C: It sounded good. We were talking about. [24:41] Chad: Remember, we're on a team. We're on a team here. [24:43] Speaker C: You should sit next to me and like stop me on the foot or something. [24:46] Chad: Yeah, I do have tape in my pocket. Take your mouth. [24:50] Speaker C: Okay. [24:50] JD: Okay. I mentioned earlier. Oh, smell it. I've. I am a proud, card carrying member of the Fred Reich fan club. Guy's an icon, right? A God in my mind. I stalk him sometimes on the beach by his house. I used to say that Jason Roberts was like the Coolest ERISA attorney because he told me he wind surfed once and I thought that was really neat. But you just might be the coolest ERISA attorney. [25:25] Speaker C: You haven't heard me speak yet. [25:29] JD: I feel like he's the most interesting [25:30] Chad: man in the world too. [25:31] JD: Like you. Sit back. I'm beginning to realize that you have commitment issues. I'll always stay with Fred. Just bouncing from my guy. No offense, but you might be the flavor of the month. [25:43] Speaker C: Like we don't know who's next. [25:45] Chad: He's been married for a long time, so at least. [25:47] JD: Sorry, Tracy, that shirt is on fire. [25:51] Speaker C: Thank you, thank you. I picked that up myself, so yeah, very sweet. [25:54] JD: You're jealous. You don't have a. What we're going to be talk to you about today, buddy, is you recently wrote this article on investment news. Am I getting that right? [26:02] Speaker C: Correct. [26:04] JD: And I listened to a podcast eight, nine months ago. Who here knows the 401k Fridays podcast? Mr. Unser. Where is he? Some love. Where's Rick? And he had Jerry Schlichter. Am I getting that right? The 401k boogeyman. That's his name? Yeah. [26:30] Chad: Self proclaimed. [26:31] JD: He's a scary mofo. And he had him on the show and he made a statement in his interview with Rick where he and I was listening like on the edge of my seat for real. And he said, record keepers. F words should not use participant data. There it is. [26:54] Chad: Yeah, you got rid of the F word. [26:57] JD: But fair enough. I'm gonna steal half of yours. [26:59] Janya Stout: Jen. [27:00] Chad: Oh, you need me to report for you? [27:02] JD: Glad that doesn't get better. I really think that you should have to drink that. [27:06] Chad: I'm gonna say so far you're losing [27:08] JD: employee data to sell other things to them. Like Schlichter thinks that's a violation. You shouldn't be doing that. And that's a big deal because I think the big firms, the insurance companies nationwide, the principals, whatever the world, have always had that as part of their game plan. Our company's based in Silicon Valley and I've learned recently that a lot of these 401k disruptors that are getting big VC money, tens of millions of dollars, that that's kind of their next stage too. That's why they're getting those 30 million dollar funding is it's not just for the 401k business. They want the attention of those employees down the line. Which I was like, whoa, okay, so this is happening. Schlichter says no. Recently in the Vanderbilt case, he literally made it one of Their. What do you attorneys call it? I call it like a demand. Tell me about this dude. Okay. What's going on? Seriously, let the man speak. [28:13] Janya Stout: Can you stop? [28:15] JD: Mark, shut up. [28:17] Speaker C: So one thing I would say at the outset. So I'm a former plaintiff's attorney myself, so I do have some. I know Jerry Schlichter is probably not the most popular person in this room, but I do think I understand somewhat where he's coming from. And I would say that he has a point. It's just a matter of degrees, and that is that, you know, the old days when the plan sponsor would just sign off and say, you know, and the vendor came in, whether it was the record keeper or the fund company, and just said, you know, just sign here. We'll take care of everything. Don't worry about it. That those days are gone or are fleeting. But I think that he goes too far. And we're starting to get this now. When we're negotiating contracts with clients, they're saying, well, we have a privacy policy in our contract. And they're saying, but we don't want you to really talk to our employees. We don't want you to market anything to our employees. And I'm trying to push back against that, to say, understand that at some point, those employees, one. I mean, we do a great job. And I'm gonna have Brandon on later working with the employees inside of the plan. [29:16] JD: Employees. Employees. Wow. [29:20] Chad: Over there. [29:21] JD: Bullshit. Why don't you drink a little more? You're on a roll. I'm sorry, it's not working well, so. [29:31] Speaker C: But then there's going to be a point where they're going to end up with a big pot of money, and they're going to walk away. And my fear and frustration is those plan sponsors that aren't helping them by saying, we're not letting anybody talk to you as we push you out of the plan with this big pot of money, no one can touch you. And so who's going to. You know, Al's Annuity company down the street is going to come walking in and say they've got a great product for you. [29:56] Chad: You. Yeah, yeah. [29:57] Speaker C: And it's, you know, and part of this is the do's fault. And Brad Campbell talked about this yesterday, but they had a. An opinion they issued that said if you're a 321 or 338 to the plan. [30:09] JD: 321. 338. What? [30:11] Chad: He's really good, you guys. [30:14] Speaker C: And you counsel a participant. [30:21] JD: Wait, wait, you're. [30:22] Chad: Yes, I forgot you drinking buddies? [30:25] JD: Drinking buddies. [30:27] Janya Stout: Cheers. [30:27] Chad: You are so proud of yourself too. And you didn't say the F word, Mark. [30:31] Speaker C: Actually, that's not bad. [30:32] JD: You're pretty much clear on the nasty. Oh, I'm done, cuz. Jan's got your back. [30:37] Speaker C: What do you mean? [30:38] Chad: Look at her. [30:39] JD: $4 billion answering emails. We're doing a show. Janya, wait. Time out, Time out. Can you pay attention? She has at least two. You were a guest on this show and now you're on your phone. [30:51] Janya Stout: That hurts. [30:51] Chad: Hey, jd. [30:52] JD: JD hold on. [30:53] Speaker C: Pause. [30:53] JD: What's our count, Skyler. Whoa. [30:57] Janya Stout: So I just. Not to take over, Phil, but. So I sent a picture to my daughters of these guys and my first youngest daughter goes, what the hell, Mom? [31:06] JD: Ha ha ha ha. [31:08] Janya Stout: And then my older daughter goes, they're cute. [31:12] JD: You're not in the picture, Justin. [31:15] Chad: I'm not in the picture. [31:16] JD: Damn. Well sorry we derailed you. That's. I should say Chanya derailed you. [31:24] Chad: What's our count? [31:26] Speaker C: Yeah, Timeout. [31:26] JD: Count, check. Count, check. Jenny has one and Phil has one. [31:31] Janya Stout: Great. [31:31] JD: Thanks, guys. But you're com. It's aggregate. [31:33] Chad: Aggregate. Well, JD Was the one who basically blew it out already. [31:38] JD: No one's on my team. [31:39] Chad: I said it on purpose. So Phil and I have two. [31:41] JD: All right, all right. [31:42] Chad: You guys got your point across. [31:43] JD: Combined thing it is. Okay, fine. [31:46] Chad: Make up your. [31:49] Speaker C: So the Department of Labor, we're talking about the opinion they issued that said if you were the 321 or 338 to the plan already and you counseled an employee on a rollover on their way out, that could be a prohibited transaction. But if you didn't have any prior relationship with the plan, then you basically owed no interest whatsoever to that employee. And even by Washington standards, it's a really stupid policy and it's just exactly backwards. And they were pushing employees to, like I said, the people who want to just come in and sell them a product. And so like I said, I think we're starting to see some of our plans come to us and saying, we really want you to take care of our employees. And that is. So we want you to provide them with advice while they're in the plan. We want you to provide education, as Brandon's going to talk about in a little bit. But also we've now had some starting to come to us and saying when our employees get ready to retire, we want you to agree to handle the rollovers for them on a reduced fee and a fixed fee, which I would much rather see. And so my position is that I do think plan sponsors have a duty to their employees to protect them by saying we're going to allow somebody to have access to them to. Whether it's, you know, provide them advice, help them with rollovers, whether it's us as the plan advisor, whether it's the record keeper, whether it's the fund company, whether it's a third party advisor. To me, that's fine. It's just as long as they make that conscious decision and don't just sign a piece of paper that just signs the rights away. [33:27] JD: Can I ask you. There's no like actual rule or regulation or law in place right now that says you cannot. Obviously. Honestly. [33:37] Speaker C: So there's reg sp, which is the sec. It's the federal privacy laws. But reg sp specifically does not apply to retirement plans. [33:45] JD: And Schlichter points to like 406B or something. Right, well. And it would be self dealing. [33:54] Speaker C: Right. It would be one thing if we were, you know, as the plan advisor, saying we're going to sell the participant. [34:07] JD: God, you're in the lead for that. [34:08] Chad: Oh, thanks for pointing that out, JD [34:10] Speaker C: I'm really trying to avoid. [34:12] JD: Don't. [34:12] Chad: You don't drink. [34:13] JD: That's all him. It's not like you have to drink. You are true drinking buddies. Go on. All right, take it up. [34:20] Chad: Oh, that's terrible. [34:22] JD: Fill them up because there's gonna be another. [34:27] Speaker C: So where were we? After two shows, I'm already getting. [34:29] JD: I think we're ready for what is going to be my favorite part of the show. So you're basically saying to the 401k, boogeyman, you disagree, you're wrong. You're ready to fight it out. [34:42] Speaker C: I'll take him on. [34:43] JD: Rick, you interviewed Schlichter. Rick's on his phone too. Jesus. [34:46] Chad: Come on, come on. [34:48] JD: And I wouldn't mess with that dude. So I want you to. You go for it. I'm not associating with you on this. So I'm scared of that guy. [34:57] Speaker C: I just have one condition. Have you ever seen the movie Cinderella Man? [35:01] JD: Yes. [35:02] Speaker C: So in Cinderella man, before Russell Crowe's character had the fight with Max Baer, the heavyweight champion, the promoter of the fight made Russell Crowe watch. Then it was film of Max Baer killing a man in a ring with a punch. So before Jerry Schlichter can accept this challenge, he needs to watch my video and sign the waiver. So can we put the video up? [35:53] JD: Sam? [36:26] Speaker C: So bring on Jerry. [36:27] Chad: What side are you on? [36:27] Speaker C: Bring on Jerry. [36:28] JD: I was thinking I Was thinking if that video was really bad, it was gonna be good for us because there's a lot of comedy there. I can't figure out, was it bad or was it good? I was kind of motivated. [36:40] Speaker C: I kind of feel like our intern stole the show, though. I mean, I think that with a little practice, they could challenge the Backstreet Boys. I mean, I think they're. [36:48] JD: I wanted to make fun of your video, but I thought it was kind of cool. Okay. You know, and I'm a little scared of you. Apparently, you, like, work out and stuff. [36:57] Chad: When was the last time you were in the gym? J.D. [37:00] JD: i do the Peloton. I got the Peloton. [37:02] Speaker C: Oh, that's true. [37:03] Chad: And you surf a while. [37:04] JD: I've been doing beginner classes for, like, two and a half years. Those instructors intimidate the out of me, man. Like, I just got beginner again today. [37:13] Chad: Pretty much every time we spend time at your house, we sit on the peloton after a lot of drinks. And it does intimidate me as well. So I get it. [37:20] JD: I'm scared. That was awesome. I'm sure you're going to take on Schlichter. I'm going to promote it. Okay. We're going to make a thing of this. [37:28] Speaker C: All right, great. [37:29] JD: I'm going to distance myself a little bit. How can you distance yourself while promoting? It can be done. [37:35] Chad: There's a way to do it right away. [37:37] JD: There's a way to do it. But again, what I want you to do is thank Phil for being up here with us, the coolest ERISA attorney in the biz, and welcome our newest guest, Brandon Cutler. Get your butt on up here. [37:55] Chad: I feel like. [37:57] JD: Hey, buddy. Pleasure, sir. [37:59] Chad: I'm not gonna stand up, so nobody will know how short I am next time. [38:02] JD: Five, seven, right now. Whoa, whoa, whoa. [38:06] Chad: Let go. That was aggressive. Justin. [38:08] JD: It's going to be a Father's Day. [38:10] Chad: I got a good transition that I thought about while we were. What I was going to say is, to Phil's point, there is nobody better to be an advocate for these employees, these folks, we use that, than the advisors who are already servicing them in an F word capacity. So as we look at saying we're going to stop gathering data, you know, you already lost. I got you. [38:32] JD: Keep going. [38:33] Chad: Great. Yeah, I should just say fiduciary. [38:35] JD: Why? [38:35] Chad: I've already lost. I spoke to Brandon earlier. He's on top of his game. This is the audience that should be helping them through each of these stages of their investment. [38:44] JD: Totally agree. [38:45] Chad: And their Retirement savings. So why do we keep putting up these roadblocks? And I feel like advisors that talk about this in a sales process, it's going to differentiate them. That is telling them, hey, I'm here for every stage of the, of the process for your young investors, to your retirement folks who are taking a transition to an IRA and rolling their money out. That's a differentiator. That in the 100 point of sales, 200 point of sales I'm sitting on in a year. I hear three times two. [39:11] JD: That's all starting to prop you up [39:13] Chad: already is what it's positioning is. [39:15] JD: That's a transition. That's great. Well, I'm going to derail your transition. Brandon came back. [39:20] Chad: I don't think you had a good transition. [39:21] JD: Green room back there where we were drinking beers and listening the BC boys and. And he. And we said, hey, Brandon, you want. You want a beer, bro? Let's get ready for the show. He goes, no, no, no. I've got like, things to do later. Like, I can't. I can't have a beer right now. And he walked out the door and we all went like, I'm hoping that you're the worst on this prohibitive work. [39:47] Speaker D: Yeah, that's probably accurate. [39:48] JD: Good, good. [39:48] Chad: I said, thankfully, it's 15 minutes for him because most guests are up here for 45. And that would be. [39:53] JD: Maybe that's what it is. That's what it is. We have. I have all the faith in the world. [39:56] Chad: Anybody. [39:57] JD: They let it down. [39:58] Chad: I don't know which one I sit down. [39:59] JD: Right. Brandon, that's the clean. I also asked you how tall you were. We were on the phone. You said you were tall for some reason. I don't know whether you're cocky about that. [40:09] Speaker D: It's all I got. [40:10] JD: You said that and you. And you added a half increment to your whatever. What did you say? Your six. [40:16] Speaker D: I don't remember. I think it was just. I think it was just six, seven. I don't know if it was anything. [40:21] JD: You said something and a half. And I'm like, wow, that's weird. He kind of pretty proud of his height or whatever. Says the five, eight and a half guy. Five, eight. I've been telling my kids for years that I was five nine. Like my driver's license says five, nine. [40:37] Chad: Be honest with me. [40:38] JD: My kids are 21, 17 and 15 and. Is that right? Gabby? Just make sure he's got his. As they get older, they approach my height and they're measuring themselves to check. Right. How high how tall they are. And they're like, dad, you say you're five nine. What the hell? I'm like looking down on you. I'm five nine. I don't understand. [40:57] Chad: I was gonna say, be honest. How many of the three are taller than you? [41:00] JD: All of them. Thanks, Chad. [41:04] Chad: You're welcome. [41:05] JD: Okay, let's get to real stuff. This is actually a real. Let Brandon speak so Justin can drink some more. Okay. Yes, some more. So you do know. Skyler, you there, buddy? Yeah, I'm over here. Your mustache is there. You ready? Tell Brandon what the update. Actually, don't tell him, Skylar. Let him relax. Check your email. We're not telling you what the words of the episode are. You've been paying attention. [41:29] Chad: Your teammate, employee and advisor. [41:32] JD: Justin, right? You guys are drinking buddies. [41:34] Chad: I think I made that note noticeable [41:36] JD: when I creepily held on to it. Let's go quick. Let's see if we can get Brandon above. Let's allow speak, please. Financial wellness. Dude, I want to make fun of. Is it cool? Is or should we be interested in it? What's the deal? [41:50] Speaker D: Absolutely. I think it's. It's awesome to work with participants. That. [41:56] JD: That's a record. Okay. [41:59] Chad: Half. [42:00] JD: Half. He's got. He's got stuff to do later. Hey, I'm just gonna tell you, Brandon, that's my guy. [42:09] Chad: A champ like Tanya. [42:10] JD: If it makes you feel any better, you're the tallest guy ever to say the prohibited word on our show. Hashtag yeah by half an inch. [42:18] Speaker D: Hashtag over JD Yeah. [42:20] JD: Yes. [42:20] Chad: Sorry. [42:21] JD: Go on. Wellness. It's important to these people. It's a buzzword. [42:27] Speaker D: It's helpful to help. [42:32] Chad: I feel your pain. [42:35] Speaker D: It's awesome to have the opportunity to add value to hard working people's lives, to put them in a better situation than what they were in before. But more importantly, not talk about just one topic. To talk about everything that they're currently working on. The biggest financial priority and some of the things that you see as a red flag. It's. It's awesome to have that opportunity to help out participants. [42:59] JD: Wow. [43:00] Chad: He did that on purpose. You're going down. [43:04] JD: I only gave him 100 bucks. This is impressive. I see you in a whole new light now. [43:09] Speaker D: Poker face. [43:10] JD: Yeah. That's sick, bro. You just went for that on purpose. [43:13] Speaker C: You hurt his hand, apparently. [43:16] JD: We've talked about wellness a lot. Mark has even called it a buzzword over and over and over again. [43:24] Chad: Well, when you wrote and said wellness will be a topic, I immediately responded like, are you kidding me? Come on. How Many times. Can we beat this? [43:30] JD: It's hard to burp when there's a mic, right? [43:32] Chad: Yeah, you gotta do quiet. [43:34] JD: I'll share with you. No, seriously, we were like, wellness. Okay. It's wellness again. I'm a wellness advocate. I really do think that the 2.0 version of a plan. Plan advisor or the advisor. 3 years, 5 years, 7 years from now, wellness will be a part of his or her practice. You guys are a little more negative from times on the adoption of it all. [44:01] Chad: I'm negative on the success of it. I think that we've failed at this point creating technology that folks are not taking advantage of, which I think is a differentiator for elements. The mentor element of it, to me is a big difference than what everybody else has created so far, which is technology that unfortunately is not adopted. People aren't taking advantage of it. They're not getting onto that website and utilizing those tools. Do you agree? [44:26] JD: What is any different right now? A person has to go on and fill out a questionnaire. Same thing. [44:34] Chad: No, the difference is going to be great if you do that. [44:37] Speaker D: It's pretty aggressive. [44:39] JD: Yes. Yeah. They're saying, like, is this really going to work? This technology, these email notifications, these things to get these participants to step up and actually take action? This is what Financial Elements is all about. Can it be done? [44:58] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. So we have a different approach and introducing the human element once more. [45:06] JD: Mentor. [45:07] Speaker D: He's making a lot of eye contact to make sure I'm not seeing it. [45:11] Chad: That's creepy. [45:12] JD: He's your drinking buddy. He's trying to coach you and not say the words. Justin, leave him alone. [45:17] Speaker D: So there's, there's. There's really two components that we really focus on to help people out. One is the proactive approach to simply keep them engaged. The second is we. We simply keep them accountable. That's something that's not, you know, being introduced, and it's not something that's consistent with wellness programs. It's great to have, you know, the education side of it, the videos, they're all helpful, even online courses. But who's forcing them? Or who's saying, hey, I'm going to get back in contact with you next week to check on things. Who's keeping people accountable at this point? And there's. There's very few opportunities. [45:53] JD: Is that what these mentors are doing? Well, they're following up and calling someone back. [45:58] Speaker D: Absolutely. So we don't limit how many times we work with the people that need it. If you have, you know, expecting little One, then there's some planning that we need to take in consideration. If you have someone in your household that's getting ready to go to school, go to college, you know, that's a pretty big expense. You know, what, what does that mean in the sense of planning? So that's where, you know, financial elements is different because we have the technology side of it and we're reintroducing the human element, the actual person that you can speak with to get assistance with whatever you're wanting to focus on. [46:31] Chad: Well, and I gave this analogy at 1:30 in the morning last night when we were prepping. [46:35] JD: What was I. [46:36] Chad: You were asleep and he was throwing lions at you. [46:39] JD: Have you ever seen a human being sleep in a chair like this? [46:44] Chad: Well, the rest of us are prepping. [46:46] JD: I'm pretty sure half the audience has done that at some point during. [46:50] Chad: They're doing it right now. Yeah. [46:51] JD: Yeah. Well, I know what half I'm in. [46:54] Chad: So I mentioned this last night. Justin is fantastic at getting into the gym and working out and staying in shape. I am not. And he holds me accountable for that. He texts me when I'm not hitting my numbers on my watch. That accountability, that feeling guilty like I didn't live up to what I told him I was going to do that day. He reaches out and I said, I'm going to go to the gym this afternoon. I don't do it. That's a differentiator for me. I feel guilty when I let him down. And I think that's a big difference for this mentorship program that you guys have. [47:22] JD: You realize they didn't include me. [47:24] Chad: When was the last time you went to the jail? [47:26] JD: Mark, Let our guest speak. I've never been to a gym. I know a guy named Jim. [47:33] Speaker D: It's exactly what we do. We, we simply want to, you know, be. Be positioned to. Where we don't. I'm really thinking really hard on what to say. [47:43] JD: Speak freely, Brandon. You. You're trying to give value to all these. Skyler Count. All these advisors want value from you. They don't want you to hold back. Don't let the. Don't let the prohibited where the episode stop you from delivering value to them. Let it go. [47:58] Janya Stout: Relax. [47:59] Speaker D: Yeah. So the, the employees that we're able to help out, you know, we, we are like the gym membership. We're like the gym membership, but we're also making sure you wear your seatbelt on the way to the gym or when you get there. We're actually, you know, provide. Providing a good quality meal for you. And then after we're going to, you know, help you with recovery so we can see you the next day a lot of times. And this was actually touched on a little earlier. Whenever we work with people and we schedule that appointment for that very, you know, initial consultation, if you will, before we get off the phone, we schedule the next one. So whatever homework we wanted them to do, as far as whether it's adding the accounts or creating goals, we're able to do two things. First, lock in a time frame to where we're gonna simply. But, you know, give them a call back and say, hey, this is something that we wanted to check on. But second, a lot of times we find that, you know, if they know they have that scheduled meeting, then they'll do it. Whatever we, you know, need, whether it's adding the accounts, like I said before, the day before, they'll do it in that timeframe. So the accountability is just the most powerful tool to simply help. [49:05] JD: Yeah, this is way more hands on than I thought it would be. And I do want to talk to our audience because this is why we're here is all these people out here, if I'm an advisor, shop and I want to add financial wellness to my practice and I use this program, which I think most of the people here have that opportunity to do. I just basically get my clients to sign up for it and, and then Financial elements handles the rest of it. Like, I don't need staff or people or those things, right? [49:41] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. So that's all it takes is once we have the information, we just simply take it from there. And that way we're kind of the boots on the ground for you if that's something that you don't have the capacity to do. [49:54] JD: You told me a story when we talked on the phone about how a participant. [50:02] Chad: I wish you were in this game so bad. [50:04] JD: No, near veterinarian is when you just do it because you freaking want to. Would call in and you'd actually talk to them about their credit cards and oh, they'd have these four credit cards. You'd consolidate them and you said you got your guy. Would your mentor go to Nerd Wallet and help them find the best rate for like, this is like real down in the weeds kind of stuff, right? [50:28] Speaker D: Yeah, it's, it's a way for us to implement the solution rather than guide them towards a solution and then, you know, maybe not check in a little there, you know, thereafter. You know, when you, when you have something before you, you can compare it to your Experience. So if you had a wellness program before, you can compare it to, you know, what you currently have, like financial elements. So you know, in that sense, you know, if you're in between, you know, two different credit cards that are very similar in payments and you know, before you were taught to try to take action in a very specific way, you know, with the innovative ideas that the mentors have, they're going to bring that up as an option, but they're also going to take everything else in consideration, like your credit score and you know, how we account for that interest free period. But with the technology side of it, we can account for it and we can say, hey, it's going to simply take this long before you're debt free. Congratulations. It's a powerful conversation to have with anybody. [51:21] JD: What incentive do the mentors have? I'm just curious, are they advisors? [51:26] Speaker D: So if we're talking to the employees, there's no, we're not going to get compensated in any additional way. [51:38] Chad: Just making sure he knows I agree. [51:39] JD: All the words, great, that's fine. But part of this, you do have to have a freaking beer in your [51:44] Chad: hand and like it levels you out between the mic and the beer. [51:47] JD: Too sober, bro. Like you're not going to say the word. Go on. Sorry, did I derail? [51:55] Chad: They're just trying to get you off base, dude. Keep it up. [51:58] JD: Let's talk about how cool your website is. Cuz the blue and the highlighted blue on the black and white with the highlighted blue. I love that stuff. [52:06] Chad: Marketing is phenomenal. [52:07] Speaker D: It was all my idea. [52:08] JD: Was it really? [52:08] Speaker D: Absolutely not. No, no, I'm terrible at that. [52:11] Chad: You guys should, I mean, you've got [52:12] JD: to be tracking stuff to shut up [52:14] Chad: the naysayers like this guy right here and prove like, hey, when you have human engagement, we are able to prove that we have this much more interaction and these, you know, these people are actually participating and oh, add that one to the gap. [52:28] JD: Finally talk. I'm going to back you up and I'm going to go, I'm going to share personally with this audience here. So I'm an employer, I got 25 employees and I never really thought about financial wellness on my staff. But from time to time, and we've been in business since 1975, my wife does HR. [52:49] Chad: She left. Oh, they bounced. For sure, they bounced. My wife left and I saw her do this as she was walking out, like, wrap it up. You know, she was one of the [53:00] JD: ones that was HR for us and once in a while, don't blame her. It has happened where one of my employees gets a garnishment from them. Can you not tell my personal business. We all knew it was you, Mark. And it worries me as an employer. I go, oh my gosh, here's this person who I'm entrusting to do a job, maybe even service my clients, and they've got this financial black cloud looming over them. I call them. I really want to find out what's happening and so would you all know this. I just want to reiterate it from a really kind of. From me is like that scares me as an employer. And so if I'm in a thousand employee company, you damn right. I'm worried about the productivity and the mental state and the headspace of my employees. And if their finances is stressing them out, sucking time from them, that's a real big productivity thing. And clearly you agree with that, right? [54:02] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. It's, it's something that you have to be on top of. You have to take in consideration. And the way that we account for that is we report, you know, based on what we're finding. A lot of times, you know, employers have a good idea on what they're doing and heading in the right direction. But, you know, I found out we can speak with their employees and, you know, a real capacity to talk to every single person. You're going to gather some information along the way. Right. So once we gather the information, we're able to report it back to the, to the plan and say, hey, these are the things that we found people have the most issues with. So let's follow up with some type of, you know, education with the actual person. And let's not, you know, simply look it over. Let's attack ahead on. [54:49] Chad: And we may not think about it often. And I think, Janya, you said this on your podcast, which is relieving stress from working America. The truth is we may not think about our finances as often as we should, but many of our employees and the true working folks of America are and that creates a great deal of stress for them. I was impressed. And I didn't know this as you said it earlier, that you guys are really getting a into the weeds, even to the tune of credit card percentages that they're paying. You're really getting into the weeds to help them find the next step on their pathway to hopefully creating a retirement success. So kudos to what you all are doing. [55:26] Speaker D: Thank you. [55:27] Janya Stout: Yeah. [55:28] JD: For this audience as what I see as plan advisors and I know you guys and girls do a lot of different things. But I do believe as much as Mark argues me late in the night, that wellness will be a huge part of the successful 401k plan advisor three years from now, five years. When have I ever argued that point? Last night when I was late. And I think that sometimes we're too critical of where we're at right now. The adoption rates, who's using it. Let's not be so critical. And if you're not using it, you should, you should start that because it's going to be part of the process and don't be critical about what it is right now and think more about what it might be in a little bit and how that might help your business and help you make. [56:21] Janya Stout: Yeah. [56:21] JD: More money, but help you make more, help people. [56:24] Chad: You help three or five people that otherwise would have been in a tough situation. Like that's a, that's a difference. Let's not overlook that. [56:30] JD: I'm gonna leave with this just because the financial, the retirement plan advisor. When I do this, Brandon, I don't think about what the prohibitive word is. I just speak. Yeah, I don't. When the retirement Plan advisor of 5 years ago, 10 years ago did fund reviews and fee benchmarking and record keeper RFPs and fiduciary views like boom, take that drink. Like I said, I don't think about it. That's. That was great. [57:04] Chad: We'll be asleep by 6 tonight. [57:06] JD: But we have to evolve, right? We have to evolve. And it's, it's, it's normal business practice to anyways to offer more services that are of value to your, to your clients. [57:20] Chad: Well, that's Jan's approach as well. [57:21] JD: Right. [57:22] Chad: Step in and say, look, there are [57:23] JD: other things we can do. Financial wellness isn't obvious choice. And clearly the industry and people much smarter than me have decided that this is a big deal. Like we have attached ourselves to this. And so it's coming, it's here, it's coming and it's coming in a bigger way. Unless. Okay, I'm gonna get too emotional because we're about to wrap this. I learned from you guys that you guys are into collaboration. This whole group. I thought that was kind of B.S. like, oh yeah, I thought you're here for tools and resources. That's the name of the company. But you are here to collaborate and you're here to actually help create what that next version of a retirement plan advisor is or just an advisor is, if that's how you see yourself. And so let's keep doing that. And I Think financial wellness is a huge, huge part of that. So screw you, Mark. It's not a place. Time out. Time out. If it's used appropriately in different audience here in other facets, we've had people check it off. It's a box. They check like, oh, yeah, I got this wellness tool I use. Great. I'll just toss it out there. They vet them out. If they integrate it, if they utilize it, if it makes sense, if it's actually something that's a part of a process for the bigger picture, I'm all for it. It's going to be a big thing. Not if you just go that one. That's what kind of what I'm saying is. Don't. Don't judge what we have right now. Even though right now we've got some really cool. There's good stuff. Think about what we could have and what's the next version. All that. Okay, we're gonna wrap the show. We're gonna keep you up here with us. We don't do this off. [59:02] Speaker D: It sounds good. [59:03] JD: Okay, first of all. Skyler, are you there? Skyler? Skyler? [59:06] Chad: Yeah. I haven't left you guys. I'm over. [59:08] JD: I thought you give us a traffic report. [59:10] Chad: Stay in the corner. [59:11] JD: Let's that count. Jenny had one, Phil had four. Brandon had three. Oh, no, Phil. Yes. [59:19] Speaker C: We're about to. [59:20] Janya Stout: My boy. Phil. [59:21] JD: We're going to wrap this show. [59:23] Chad: I really thought you lost. [59:25] JD: I did too, actually. Stop delaying the inevitable. Hey, that's you right there. [59:30] Chad: Do I have to put the olives in it? Yep. [59:32] JD: I'll eat the olives. I'll do it for you. I'll eat the damn. You don't like the olives, though? [59:35] Chad: I don't like anything in that cut. [59:37] JD: Well, first of all, that's like nine ounces. [59:40] Chad: We made the bartender take a straw full and she literally went to the [59:45] JD: ground after on her knees because. Who here's on Instagram? Don't make this a. Raise your hand if you're on Instagram. Say, we're both going. [59:52] Chad: That was a reluctant hand on Instagram. It's all right. [59:57] JD: Don't be afraid of your secret account. That's. That is the Heireholics. We filmed the bartender who made this drink and she fell to her knees. So you're gonna try it. [1:00:07] Janya Stout: Cause you made it. [1:00:08] JD: You try it. Give us an honest opinion. Okay. Okay. Perfect. [1:00:21] Chad: Oh, that's gonna be fantastic. [1:00:22] JD: Look at our stories. It's there for your old people. Stories is a thing on Instagram. Okay. [1:00:27] Chad: I feel okay about This. I think you're lying. [1:00:29] JD: All right, so Chad's razor. He's gonna do that and then. Hang on, Chad. And then we're gonna finish the show for the audience. And we have a saying at the end of the show. [1:00:41] Chad: Jesus. [1:00:42] JD: The first, when it goes down, the [1:00:44] Chad: jalapenos are sitting in the top. [1:00:46] JD: We say, distract me a lot. That's actually helpful. We say, hey, we're the retireholics and we're changing the retirement plan industry one beer at a time. Do you do that with us? Don't. [1:00:59] Speaker D: Can we. Can we split it up half and half? [1:01:01] Janya Stout: Wait. [1:01:03] JD: We say, we are the retireogs and we change the retirement plan industry. One participant and one fiduciary. Oh, those still count. I was trying to be funny and set them up. [1:01:15] Chad: Yeah, we should grow shambo for this. [1:01:17] JD: I love when the audience judge all of a sudden want to ro Twice. It's twice. I know it's twice. That's where no one may need the judge. [1:01:27] Speaker C: Oh, I got to loosen this. [1:01:28] Chad: It ain't going to happen. [1:01:30] JD: So, Chad, you lost P.E. so bad, you're going to drink that? All right. Do it, Chad. The S are out, by the way. This are out. So I expect make applause. [1:01:38] Speaker C: Don't do it. [1:01:38] JD: Don't do it. [1:01:39] Speaker C: Don't do it. [1:01:40] JD: Don't do it. [1:01:41] Speaker C: No, [1:01:44] Chad: no. It's like Portland all over now. [1:01:46] JD: Put it down. [1:01:46] Chad: Put it down. [1:01:48] Speaker C: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. [1:01:52] Chad: You know how bad that hurts? [1:01:53] JD: Brandon, you want some? Finish it, boys. Fine. Fine. Finish it, Justin. Brandon, you ready? [1:02:04] Chad: We are the retireholics. [1:02:06] Speaker D: We're changing the retirement plan one beer at a.