Financial Wellness: Beyond the Buzzword | Advizr

[0:00] JD: Sorry. [0:00] Speaker B: It's okay. [0:16] JD: We've got Maria Behrens and Troy Tar from Advisor. Come on and join us here on the stage. Hand me that. Hand me that right there. Thanks for being on the show. [0:29] Maria Behrens: Thanks for having us. [0:29] JD: We're happy to have you. Apparently, you guys make these really good mints. So we want to talk to you all today about the creation of the mints and what can be used for what. What makes your mints stand out from other mints. So how did you get into the mint business? [0:46] Troy Tar: I don't. [0:47] JD: No, no, we're not going to do this. You guys are from Advisor. It's a financial wellness tech tool. Support to advisors, participants. I'm going to let you guys talk more about it, okay? But like every episode of Retireaholics, we [1:02] Maria Behrens: get to drink beer. [1:03] JD: We get a drink beer at a 401k conference. [1:06] Troy Tar: That's really why we came. [1:07] JD: So pop these out. I went with a. [1:11] Troy Tar: Thank you very much. [1:12] JD: I went with a classic. [1:13] Troy Tar: I love it. [1:14] JD: So we have never had this beer. [1:17] Speaker E: We should ask him, huh? [1:18] Speaker B: It's a big can. [1:19] JD: It is. [1:20] Maria Behrens: You do not. [1:21] JD: Oh. You have to finish it by the end of the show. It's 35 minutes. [1:25] Speaker B: I'm their director of wellness. [1:26] Speaker F: Oh, my God. [1:28] JD: Feel free to set it. You can set it down at any time. If you want me to set it down, I'm more than happy to do that for you. [1:34] Maria Behrens: J.D. [1:35] JD: there's got the cheers going first. Once everyone's set up. This is from down Under, I think there's really not a whole lot of explanation. [1:46] Speaker E: Fosters commercials. [1:47] Maria Behrens: Oh, yeah, those are great shrimp. [1:50] Speaker E: That's not exact. [1:51] JD: I don't think that was in the commercial. [1:54] Troy Tar: Shrimp on the bobby for you. [2:02] JD: So it's Fosters. You all know Fosters. Cheers. [2:05] Troy Tar: Cheers. [2:05] JD: Cheers to the show. Cheers to excel. 401K. Let's get this. Thank you look started off in a good way. Here we go. [2:14] Troy Tar: I like it. [2:17] JD: Oh, much better than the. The stouts and the IPAs you guys are always throwing at me on these shows. Before we dive deep into Advisor, what I'd like to do is have a little conversation around just financial wellness. You just forgot. Oh, sorry. [2:34] Maria Behrens: Come on. Mark's favorite part. [2:37] JD: It's the word of the episode. Let me explain this to our guests. I'm going to come up with a word right now. Anytime anybody says that word during this show, you will have to drink from this little special, cheap, cheesy rose wine. What is that stuff? [2:58] Maria Behrens: Barefoot. [2:59] JD: Barefoot. [3:00] Maria Behrens: Pink moscato. [3:01] Speaker B: Wow. [3:02] JD: Sounds tasty. Should I go in there? [3:04] Speaker F: Bring Smirnoff back? Isn't it? [3:07] JD: I'm gonna make the word be. We've done it before. [3:10] Speaker E: Advisor. [3:11] JD: No, I'm gonna go. Oh, that's nice. [3:15] Maria Behrens: You can't do advisor. That's the name you need to tell us. [3:21] JD: Okay, I'm gonna make it participant. [3:23] Speaker B: Oh, okay. I say that a lot. [3:25] JD: Okay, so that is the word from this point on. You say it. Someone help us out, and then police it. Well, we don't have an audience to. [3:34] Troy Tar: What's the word? [3:35] JD: To keep us in check. [3:36] Troy Tar: What's the word? [3:37] JD: Starts with a P. It references employees of a retirement plan. [3:42] Troy Tar: All right. [3:42] JD: Okay. [3:43] Speaker F: First time. [3:43] JD: He hasn't got what I. What I want to do is talk about financial wellness in general terms. Because we've done past shows, we've brought up the subject, we've talked about what it is. I've even in the past kind of looked at it like a buzzword almost. And now it seems real to me, like, this is not a buzzword. It's not going away. This is going to be part. It's still a buzzword. [4:08] Maria Behrens: Absolutely it is. [4:09] Speaker B: 100% wellness is a buzzword. Kind of. [4:14] JD: Fair enough. But what I'm trying to say is it's more than just a buzzword. It will be part of many 401k advisors practice going forward. So why is that? Why is it important? Why is it going to be part of their practice? Why is it becoming something that every conference talks about and why now? [4:35] Maria Behrens: That's the question that we've never answered on this show. It's been popular in the past, but it's been a silent partner. [4:40] Troy Tar: It is. But I think, like a lot of things that come around in the retirement industry, I think we're very good about this, whether it's good or bad. We'll talk about stuff for a really long time, and some stuff we'll gravitate to and we'll pull on it and say, yeah, that's it. And then it kind of has that what I call the Oprah effect. [4:54] JD: Yeah. [4:54] Troy Tar: Then everybody wants to use it and do it. I think we've been doing it for about three years now, along with DOL rule changes and all the other things that were coming up. [5:01] JD: DOL was doing a rule change. [5:03] Troy Tar: No. Yeah, Yeah. [5:05] JD: I have no idea. Sorry, sorry. [5:06] Troy Tar: It's done. [5:07] Maria Behrens: Right. [5:07] JD: But it had. We've been talking about it now. [5:10] Troy Tar: Cit, some other things that are going on. So there's all these things that happen, and we either gravitate to them or we don't. I think this is on everybody's minds because we've dug a little deeper. But I don't think right now, I think we're still a little wild, wild west. Some people think it's just about, you know, maybe education. Some people think it's tech. [5:26] JD: It can be so many different things. [5:28] Troy Tar: So many different things. There's so many different people. [5:30] JD: And that's good and bad, right? [5:31] Troy Tar: Yeah, I think so, yeah. [5:32] JD: It's hard to define it. I think it's. Hold on. [5:36] Speaker E: It's hard to define it. Maria, please. [5:38] Troy Tar: What's your definition of it? [5:39] Speaker B: Well, so if you think about the overall well being of an individual, you think about their physical health, their mental health, their emotional health, perhaps their spiritual health, their environmental health and all of these really come together to make a person well and to make them thrive and that they're living a life with meaning and purpose. And when you think about financial wellness, one cannot obtain physical health, mental well being if they're worrying about their day to day and their month to month expenses. They're worried about if they're going to be able to retire or not. They're worried about if they're going to be able to put their, their kid through college. And so really getting to the heart of what is at the core. So think about like a Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Financial well being really sits at the core because without that you are not able to have that gym membership, go on a relaxing vacation with your family, be able to save for your child's education. And so in the past really 10 years we've seen the wellness industry expand in Fortune 500, but then also in small and mid sized level companies across the board. And so with that idea of wellness and educating employees to live their best lives so they're more productive, they're more present at work. Financial wellness kind of has now stepped in because people are realizing that they're not able to obtain all these other dimensions of wellness if their finances aren't in order. Enter the financial advisor and being able to not only prepare for retirement and long term outlooks, but their day to day spending and their budgeting and where is their money going. And so that I think is really the pivot that the industry is seeing. And that's why I would say in two years, two to five years, most companies will have a financial wellness program in place. [7:22] JD: Brandon, can you put underneath her, as she says, all that I want it flashing. Best description of financial wellness ever done, bar none, period. I think the show's wrapped. That is fun, guys. I know now exactly what it's about, and it's okay. Thank you very much, Maria. Holy cow. That was very well done. Yeah, I'm intimidated by her now. I don't know what kind of questions I'm gonna have for her later. [7:52] Maria Behrens: Let me ask a question on both parts. But, Troy, you mentioned this at the beginning. If we've talked about this for so long as an industry, have we focused too heavily on financial wellness as Maria just described? It's not just about the financial side. And is that what we're migrating towards? Is that what Advisor is migrating towards? [8:12] Speaker B: We, as an industry as a whole should be thinking about kind of health and wealth and how they impact one another. And so once you get to that point, that's when you really speak to participants. See how much. [8:26] JD: Finish your thought. We'll get it to you. [8:29] Speaker E: I will. [8:29] Speaker B: If you want to. And so that's where we're able to kind of connect with people. And so as advisors, if you're able to speak with employees on a one. On one basis, you really. You do. Part of it is getting to know them. What matters to you as an individual, and where do you think that speaks? Spending your money adds value to your life or where are you financially strapped that you need some assistance on? [8:51] JD: And I agree with your earlier thoughts in terms of you can't be happy or present in your life just doing anything if your finances are in a wreck. You can't even go to the park and play with your kid if you're worried about thinking about. And now if we shift it to HR and to work and to employers, how can you possibly be working at a good level if you're having those same negative emotions? [9:16] Troy Tar: And I think that's where plan sponsors are seen. You know, the biggest benefit, because they can implement financial wellness and they can actually see the difference of people coming to work happier. There's a less stressful environment, lower health care costs on their side as a company. Less. More production. There you go. You got to have that. So, you know, they're seeing more production with people feeling happier about their finances. They're not spending hours a day worrying about it and taking away from work or going out for a cigarette or doing all these different things. I think Maria touched on a little bit. But the convergence of health and financial wellness is very. Is very big. [9:52] Speaker F: So is that going to be, like, the main cause for the shift? Because like you guys said, we've been talking about it for 10 years, and there hasn't really been a lot of action taken. Is that where the action to take place with HR departments or companies? Companies actually incorporating a wellness plan or where's that shift going to come from? [10:07] Troy Tar: Yeah, and I think they have to do what we're doing, which is assess the population and see where the real issues are. If you can find the underlying problems, what those top 10 concerns are or 12 concerns or whatever that is. And you really assess the population of your company as a whole, I think that's where we're going to get the best financial plans that are going to roll out. Because we saw stat. We were talking about stats earlier and I loved your comment. Is that a real stat? Because we can't do real stats. So we make up stats but make [10:34] JD: it a little better. [10:34] Troy Tar: Something like 80% of the companies out there are implementing what they believe is somewhat of a financial wellness program. But 90 plus percent of those same people rolled out something that they don't even know if their company needs or their plan. [10:46] JD: It's not participants. [10:48] Troy Tar: I'm just going to say. [10:48] Speaker E: There you go. [10:49] Troy Tar: Yeah, yeah. Because it has to really want. Right. So we've got to do a better job. [10:55] Maria Behrens: Well, that's the difference between a buzzword and action. Yeah, right. If it's been a buzzword, we talk about it. We don't have action. [11:01] JD: For me, when something goes beyond a buzzword and I think of our audience, I think of financial advisors who've been kicking around this idea of financial wellness and let's say that they're 401k specific and they're thinking, should I really add this to my practice? You know, does this really fit? And I kind of feel like now, and I wouldn't have said this a year ago, I think you really need to get your brain wrapped around this and start, start finding solutions and things. Because this is going to be a part of a real form K advisor solution. [11:32] Maria Behrens: And I'm gonna, I'm gonna hashtag it because it's been forever since we've done that. Hashtag not your typical advisor. [11:39] JD: Hashtags are supposed to be cool, but when you do that, you make it's [11:43] Maria Behrens: my hang sign hashtag not your typical advisor. If you're not embracing financial wellness at this point, then you're well behind the eight law. [11:50] JD: Okay, so I was going to tell you guys earlier. We have had. [11:56] Troy Tar: Actually, no, stop. [11:58] Speaker E: I'm going to go back to my original point and just say for the sake of argument, it is still a buzzword. 100 and I will stand behind that till the conference ends, that won't be that long with our audience. And correct me if I'm wrong, that I think advisors use it as a buzzword. I think HR people, business owners want it, need it. But you said it. It's exploded. So the waters are muddy. Nobody knows how to define it. It's confusing. There's 80 different places you can get it. I can go get an app for free. I can get it through my record keeper. I can do it on a spreadsheet like this nerd. Like I can do whatever I want to feel that need. Right? So I think in my mind I'm excited to hear all about what you guys have to present because if you can switch the flip the switch on advisors to stop just using that word and actually bring it to the table and make it something deliverable and tangible and trackable and be accountable for it, then you've changed my mind. [13:11] JD: Instead of a joke or humor, you just need to transition into our next subject. You did it flawlessly. Guess what? I didn't prepare. My gosh. So with that, hey, guess what? Participate with that, you guys have a real tool, a real solution. You've got the floor. Tell us about it. What is it? What is advisor? How does it work? Who's it for? Give it us all. Yeah. [13:38] Troy Tar: So I think Maria probably has a better description because she's really been the one building it. But I would tell you that I think it really takes three pronged approach. And it's not just education and leaving people to do what they need to do by themselves. And it's not just tech. Obviously it's great for scalability, but it's not just the one component. I think what we've done is we've taken education, we've taken the tech, we've built it together and created an end to end, all encompassing solution. But we also added engagement and engagement's key. And then if you have good engagement and you're actually driving behavior change and then you have ultimately a full financial plan outside of it as well that comes along with it. I think you've got some success. So I'll let Maria talk about it though. [14:17] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. So our solution was historically for financial advisors as a comprehensive financial planning tool. And we've kind of pivoted in the sense of we still offer that, but we want to be able to engage, engage end users, so employees. We want to be able to deliver a really comprehensive financial wellness solution that is not just a buzzword but actually functionally works. And people are actually Being able to have tangible takeaways from whatever marketing they're receiving, from whatever touch points that they're getting. And so our solution, not only is it the technology so somebody's able to aggregate their accounts and track their day to day spending, their longer term saving strategies for perhaps emergency funds and then retirement savings. But really thinking about it from the lens of what is important to me, what can I plan for now that is going to alleviate financial stressors in the short term, in the long term. So our solution, not just the tech but we. You can have the best technology out there, but if no one's going to go to it, then your product's kind of useless. [15:21] Troy Tar: Yeah. [15:22] Speaker B: And so our solution is all automated marketing communications. So we work with the benefits departments. So the plan sponsors. We see what are, what's important to you, what's the demographic of your population look like because obviously we're not. If you have a ton of pre retirees we're not going to be harping too much on content that yeah, paying down student debt perhaps. I mean so we look at the population, we create a calendar for them of what are the key timeframes of the year. We look at the feedback from the financial wellness assessment that we would give to an organization. We see what are their key priorities. This is the only way to do it. [15:58] Speaker E: So are you working directly with plan sponsors? [16:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, so the. With the advisor. [16:04] Troy Tar: Yeah, with the advisor relationship comes and [16:07] Maria Behrens: knocks on the door and says we love what you're doing. Because many of the large groups don't have an fa. [16:12] Troy Tar: Right. [16:12] Maria Behrens: Will you get in there and deliver the solution directly? [16:17] Troy Tar: I would say yes, but we would introduce an advisor to help make your best. We don't want to work against the [16:22] JD: advisor and you need someone to promote it and push it. [16:27] Speaker B: That's the whole idea of working with financial advisors because they're already being the individuals who are being tasked with going into organizations and doing programs on retirement and spending. And so we're giving them the tools, the resources and the tech to be able to deliver really comprehensive solutions solution but in a more turnkey approach. So it's not hours from their day that they're going to be spending on this. We're going to take that as the experts in the programming space and my team and we really customize a solution for that organization. We drive leads to the financial advisor on the other side. [16:59] JD: You drive leads Pause as in like if they work in some of these other spaces then that, that your tech's helping them isolate automatically opportunities And I shouldn't say in that sales way, it's helping them isolate places where they can help people with what they want. [17:16] Speaker B: Right. With that high touch support and getting people into a place that they're thinking strategically about their future finances. And if they want that high touch help and schedule a one on one session for additional guidance, they're able then to be that, that intermediary who's able to provide that. [17:33] Maria Behrens: What I've heard and one of the reasons why I was so excited to have you guys on is we work a lot with private wealth advisors who are getting into the 401k space because of those relationships. And often they want to be able to deliver a financial plan. They want to, they want to treat each participant like they do a private wealth plan. But it is not feasible. It's not reasonable to think that they can do that in a 250 person 401k plan. It sounds like with the financial plan plan side that you deliver initially coupled with, I'll say financial wellness on the back end, that you're bridging that gap. You're going to these soaps and saying, look, you can help create financial plans for every person involved in that plan. [18:15] Troy Tar: Yeah. [18:16] Maria Behrens: Notice I didn't say the P word, but I want to for every participant in that plan. And therefore you can bridge that gap for what their normal business model is. Just say it. [18:26] JD: Is that accurate? [18:27] Speaker B: Yeah. So our tech is really built on. So besides the advisor, the core of what it historically has been on kind of the private wealth side, we've consumerized it. So somebody who perhaps doesn't have any type of financial knowledge is able to go through whatever workflow speaks to them. So we're a goal based planning, planning platform and so people are able to go through various workloads and then as the more workflows you go through, the more comprehensive your financial plan is being built kind of on the back end. [18:58] JD: We're originally from Silicon Valley. We get all this stuff. [19:00] Speaker F: Okay, so are you guys taking like an active role with the participants at all? I mean, how, how you guys. [19:07] Maria Behrens: He just wanted to say the P word. [19:09] Troy Tar: Well, sure. [19:09] JD: They are their entire platform as being. [19:12] Troy Tar: Right. [19:13] Speaker F: I get that. But I mean, I think about it like what you're talking about, Chad, in terms of, you know, you have the advisor trying to reach out to all those 250 employees. [19:20] Maria Behrens: Right. [19:21] Speaker F: So ha. But I still, I still wonder what's going to tip the scale for that advisor to take that direct role. I know you guys, I love your email campaign. That you do, we were talking about earlier today. I think it's brilliant, but I still, I'm still kind of hesitant to, to find that the, how the participants [19:41] JD: line them up. [19:43] Troy Tar: What I think you're trying to say [19:44] Maria Behrens: is how do you engage the participants to actually take action? [19:51] Troy Tar: I might be fireman carrying you out of here. It'll be fine. I can still do it at my age. I can still. Yeah. I think what you're trying to define, I don't talk, but I think what you're trying to define is really how are you going to, how are you going to work as an advisor with all those folks to try to engage them on the one on ones because you're going to get email prompts to do that after they go through the [20:11] Maria Behrens: app and the self registration. [20:14] JD: And that's just one plan. Imagine 50 plans. [20:17] Troy Tar: So I would tell you that there was, you know, we break up the retirement industry as what we specialist, generalist, occasionalist. Right, right. I think your specialists get it. They've already built out their firms, they've got wealth management that can handle. Right. And I think the generalists are getting there and I think they're trying to be the specialist. So I think they're trying to build out wealth management as well outside of just their 401k practice. And so you've seen some people add CFPs or add junior advisors and those are going to be the folks that are going to be reaching out to all those end users at the company notice. No, Very good, very good. [20:47] Speaker B: And [20:51] Troy Tar: so, wow. I think you'll see people building that out because it's going to help them with a success rate. The other side of it is too is that when you get all these folks aggregating all their accounts, you're seeing all their held away assets and wow, that's just, that's just, I mean you look at that, you're like, wow, bright, shiny new toy and I'm going to have a new client. And although the AUM's leaving the retirement plan, it's probably going to stay because you've been doing the work on one with the participant. [21:14] Maria Behrens: There you go. [21:16] JD: Yeah, you got it. Hey, [21:19] Troy Tar: thank you. [21:20] Maria Behrens: Does it make it easier for that advisor to sit with that employee and because the financial plan is created up front, because that's one of the first steps, right? It is, yeah. Now it streamlines that communication. Right. [21:31] Troy Tar: So. [21:31] Maria Behrens: So in my world I'm working with an advisor who has to sit or would like to sit with 250 folks. [21:36] Troy Tar: Yeah. [21:36] Maria Behrens: And they step in and financial plans are created for the those people now and now they can go through it rather than create it. It's going to save them a ton of time so they can get the impact they're looking for without spending dollars and dollars in time and hours and really help these folks. [21:52] Troy Tar: Yep. [21:53] Speaker B: Yeah. It's the whole self directed approach. [21:55] JD: Sorry. [21:55] Maria Behrens: Okay. [21:56] Speaker E: Can I ask a question? [21:57] Troy Tar: Yeah. [21:58] Speaker E: Because it's all fine and dandy if so you said the word engagement so I want you to make up some statistics. But so it only works if those folks actually take action and you're saying, okay, email campaign. All right, we get it. [22:14] JD: We all get lots of emails. [22:15] Speaker E: We all delete many emails. [22:17] Maria Behrens: Right. [22:17] JD: How is that? [22:18] Speaker E: Is there a catchy subject line? Is it coming from somewhere where someone's actually going to care? Do I get a text alert? Okay, now my second question is do you know, do you have statistics on like let's use a hundred person plan on how much engagement you're having success with right now? [22:37] Troy Tar: Yes. [22:37] Speaker E: So are you tweaking things? Are you changing how you're delivering and is your, are your emails? [22:43] Troy Tar: So I'll take the first part. [22:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [22:44] Troy Tar: We're always, we obviously we're a tech company to begin with so we always have an innovative roadmap. Right. So we're always trying to tweak things and make things better and do things that our advisors are telling us to do because I think that's the approach you have to take. The other thing is though is we have real numbers because of the relationships we have today and the engagements are actually it's amazing how great of an engagement we're getting. So I'll let Maria speak to that though. [23:07] Speaker B: Yeah. So the whole idea of doing wellness in general, it also you need the support from senior leadership at an organization and so that is really what, that's one of the major takeoff points. So we have an initial immediate meeting with the advisor team, the financial advisor and then stakeholders from the plan sponsor. Joking. [23:31] Troy Tar: Do you need some more fosters? [23:33] JD: And you need their buy in and their support. They're the ones that are going to say hey guys, we've got this now check it out, pay attention, it's coming your way. [23:41] Speaker B: Right, so we look at all right, what are their best practices? So what's working for that organization? And we take those into account when we create our marketing strategy for that year for them and then we're able to refine our campaigns because we know open rates, we know click through rates, we know everything that you would historically know. Yeah. We track everything and evolve, which gives [24:01] Maria Behrens: the advisor the opportunity then to say, here's our success, here's how I've moved the needle. [24:07] Speaker B: And then also we're thoughtful though in how we're communicating with these individuals. And so we are going to look at the demographics, so age. We're going to look at if you have dependents or not. We're going to look at when did you first come on board? And that's how you really target communications to people and you get them to care because you're hitting them where they are design behind. [24:30] JD: You mentioned that earlier. You told me the only way it works is if it's customized. [24:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [24:36] JD: And now you're touching on it again. They're really using all that data to make sure that when they they're doing this campaign that it's got an intelligent strategy behind it that's going to increase that engagement. [24:47] Speaker B: Yes. So we're not just throwing every single email around financial wellness to the whole population. We get distribution lists. We have certain fields that we suggest you provide us information with so that we're able to target communications. We partner with firms in that initial meeting and we find out what are your key timeframes of the year. And so we'll complement programming or perhaps marketing communication campaigns around that. And so that is really how a program kind of is developed and is implemented. [25:17] JD: It's the same reason why you get, you get emails just for you in your inbox, like about tie bars and speedos, all the things that you're interested in. Right, Mark, Tie bars, I think they're gold. I've never really seen one. [25:31] Speaker E: But would you say, I mean, okay, let's sling some mud at some of your competitors. They don't do that. [25:37] JD: Is that what you're saying? [25:38] Speaker B: I haven't seen a solution that does comprehensive financial planning with the financial wellness, educational content and then the targeted outreach. [25:48] Troy Tar: Separated. [25:48] Maria Behrens: Yeah, I love that those two are separated. [25:50] Troy Tar: So there's nobody that, I think that is doing what we're doing as a whole and. [25:55] JD: And makes bad desserts. I mean, you should add this to your stuff. Get this on the website. [26:03] Maria Behrens: Put them in like a slingshot. I can get them all the way across the surface. [26:06] Troy Tar: They are actually. [26:06] Speaker B: I think it's like a jawbreaker. [26:08] Maria Behrens: Let me ask. [26:09] Troy Tar: We don't want them to interrupting today. [26:11] Speaker E: Gotta keep the palate refreshed. [26:13] Maria Behrens: Everybody walks up to us and like, hey, we love what you guys are doing, but you should try this. And usually it has to do with torturing me because it's quiz a death related something. What are you guys getting from, from your clients, from advisors? What are they coming up saying? Hey, I love what you're doing but I want this. What's the next step? [26:30] JD: Yeah, what's in the future? [26:31] Troy Tar: So I would tell you that and I'll let Marie answer some of this as well. I think she has a great idea on this as well. But I think I've been in the retirement side for 21 years, so I talk to the advisors on a regular basis and I think there's been some people that have come out and talked to these folks before or maybe they use their technology in a different way. And now those folks are trying to morph into wellness as well. So they have a little bit of a captured audience and maybe they have some folks that they've already talked to. So I think folks have gotten in there. But I think if you sit down with an advisor and you explain exactly everything we're doing as we're doing with you guys today, and we're giving you the whole picture of the three prong approach, I think you'll see that it's a major differentiator. And not just because we white label and do all these other things, but just because of what we're doing with the engagement, the full comprehensive financial wealth or comprehensive, comprehensive financial planning and just some other things that we're doing. And then when I look at our roadmap, we're ready to do a lot more too. So it's exciting. [27:23] JD: But tell us about the future, what's, what's coming down the pike. AI robots. [27:30] Troy Tar: So yeah, no, [27:34] JD: Elon Musk is not a fan of this stuff. He's warning us, so watch out. [27:38] Troy Tar: So you know we're about talking, talking about virtual advisors, but not us giving advice, just actually getting you through the app and being more intuitive advisors. [27:47] JD: That doesn't mean they're taking your place. Come on. [27:50] Troy Tar: Yeah, we're not doing that at all. [27:51] Speaker B: And to continue to kind of iterate on the self directed approach to financial planning because the more that somebody takes accountability, the more skin they have in the game, the more likely they are going to actually be able to take that behavior change and to refinance their loans or to increase their 401k allotment. And so giving these small wins as we go along with the high touch support from a financial advisor is really how somebody's going to progress from one stage to the next and move so [28:20] Maria Behrens: on and so forth, whether right or wrong. What I just heard there Is you're going to find a way to help that advisor stay more engaged on those, I'll say the glue in between all the tools and the modules that you're bringing together, you're going to find a way through technology to, to keep that advisor front and center and to bridge those gaps. [28:40] Speaker B: And quite frankly. And that's where most miss the more, I think. [28:43] Troy Tar: And we're also finding ways to connect with the folks that are our ecosystem of record keepers as well. [28:48] Speaker F: Right. [28:48] Troy Tar: Because everybody loves plan plan information, but they want plan participant information. Yeah. So I think at the end of the day too, we're trying to connect with those folks as well to get better information to help the advisory even further. [29:04] JD: I haven't thought about the record keeper relationship yet. Is that important to you? Is that just a data. Is that just a data play? Like do we care whether they're with Hancock Mass, whatever they're doing what you're [29:20] Troy Tar: trying, the participant level versus just plan level information. There you go. [29:26] Maria Behrens: Back to back. [29:26] JD: You got two keepers. Might see you can always stack them and then. Wait. [29:30] Speaker B: I think it's more of a compliment. [29:31] Troy Tar: This is my problem. [29:32] JD: Right. [29:32] Speaker E: Like I'm gonna say their name but like MassMutual is putting a huge health and wealth position out in the marketplace. [29:39] Troy Tar: Right. [29:39] Speaker E: They are extremely cautious about talking about that. Is that going to create. [29:47] Speaker F: I don't know. [29:47] Maria Behrens: Can you shut theirs off and turn yours on? [29:50] Speaker B: Much more of a compliment. So we would look at. Okay, what are you offering? What is your education that you have already? [29:55] Troy Tar: Compliment. [29:56] Speaker E: It's too much. [29:57] JD: It's way too much. It's overload. It's like system overload. [30:01] Speaker E: Shutdown. Financial wellness is stupid. [30:04] Troy Tar: I don't know. [30:05] Speaker E: That's all. [30:06] Speaker B: But if you look at their engagement, they're vastly lower likely than a front and center type of engagement. [30:13] Speaker E: I get it. But they're getting stuff from every angle. [30:18] Maria Behrens: But I think what you're saying is it's overload. So you have to be able to shut one off. If we're saying this is better, which I believe versus what the record keepers have built, which is a great tool for what it is. But it's not this. And so we can shut that off and turn this on. [30:33] Speaker B: We know that Apple's free, [30:37] Speaker E: that off is a cost. [30:41] Troy Tar: Yeah. But if that's finished [30:47] JD: up, record keeper's got their own tool. [30:49] Troy Tar: Here you go. Here you go. [30:51] JD: Yeah, it's my wife's name, by the way. Go on. [30:55] Speaker B: So we need. It's not just financial literacy that's going to Create behavior change. It's not financial literacy. It is building financial confidence that a user has to even engage and that is the difference. [31:07] Maria Behrens: That's a big. [31:07] Speaker E: Yeah, I know. If you could go out and tell every plan sponsor and every participant that they would all listen to you but you are not the advisor on every case. You are not going to be able to spread your gospel of wonderful words. [31:23] Troy Tar: Justin almost got smacked with an oil [31:25] Maria Behrens: get out of my but that's why [31:26] JD: they're going to try to spread it to the advisor if there's alternatives out [31:29] Speaker E: there and the advisors at loud we work with, I work with tend to take the path of least resistance. What's going to say I should go here and not use what's out here [31:41] Maria Behrens: Statistics by the way we encourage this behavior. [31:44] JD: So this is what we want here. Yeah. So go on. [31:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean I because I. We're not direct competitors. That's why we are really a technology platform for longitudinal outlook of financial planning and then short term and aggregating outlook. [31:59] Troy Tar: I like that. I got you. [32:03] JD: That's a good combo. I like that. [32:06] Speaker B: Yeah yeah. So we're not. We're not managing assets advisors a company. We are really the. The tool, the tech, the resources to be the vehicle for an end user. We're not just living on an employee reward portal driving an end user to look at this information. [32:24] Speaker F: The fact that like with with a record keeper the solution is there but no one's driving it behind it. [32:30] JD: Let me also explain something. [32:31] Speaker E: Visor's responsibility but still we have an [32:34] Troy Tar: active team over here that like to [32:37] Speaker F: be pushing those drips out. [32:38] Speaker E: I know that's what I'm trying to [32:39] Maria Behrens: fun let them go. They'll have their own conversation explain something [32:42] JD: to you and you guys will like this we'll wrap this subject. You actually work for a company that does a service. [32:51] Speaker E: Wait, I still have a job here [32:53] JD: that that record keepers actually offer themselves. So most record keepers offer exactly what we do administration. But yet we still somehow survive partner with them and do the same thing. We think better. So the analogy is right here to them they're not competing with record keepers. If record keepers have some type of solution and they this it's probably not as good. Very similar to bundled administration not being as good as TPA administration. [33:22] Maria Behrens: Look at that. [33:22] JD: But you can still play with them and get out there and partner with them. [33:27] Troy Tar: So being a part of a record keeper's ecosystem is not a problem. [33:30] JD: Right. [33:30] Troy Tar: And we could be a partner that nobody even knows who we are. It's Just a solution that they're, they're giving to their. [33:35] JD: Could be that way participants right down the line. [33:37] Troy Tar: So I can't name, I can't name the name. Yeah, so I won't name the name because we're not allowed to just yet. [33:43] JD: But we're about to name some names, [33:45] Troy Tar: partner with the major record keeper fortune 500 companies. That's about one swipe. Oh, did I say it again? [33:53] JD: Keep going, keep going. [33:55] Troy Tar: But we partner with somebody now. We're in their ecosystem and it's really not a big deal. We're just part of the ecosystem. [34:00] Maria Behrens: Marina said financial literacy versus financial wellness and my, my, my brain expodium because it made so much sense to me what record keepers are doing what versus what it sounds like you all are doing. This is about literacy education. There's tools, these things you can use. You guys are pushing engagement and true wellness. And I think that's a big differentiator. [34:21] Troy Tar: We're trying to drive behavior change because with the advent of the 401k in the late 80s, we did a bad job of educating people going from pensions and defined benefit plans because all the, all those conversations they had for a decade were oh, hey mom, so you're going to retire with how much and pension. Folks with pensions could say, yeah, I'm going to have 60,000 a year for the rest of my life or whatever that looked like. We did a really bad job in the late 80s when we came out with the advent of the 401k actually educating people. Now we're backpedaling huge. [34:51] Speaker E: Right? [34:51] Troy Tar: You see the numbers of how many retirees are going bankrupt and all these other things that are going on and it's a problem. It's a major problem. [34:57] Speaker B: Well, it's a blue, blue ocean ocean too. And I think that that's the other spectrum. [35:01] JD: It's a what ocean? [35:02] Speaker B: It's a blue, blue ocean. [35:03] JD: A blue blue ocean. [35:04] Maria Behrens: You know that you've got it. [35:06] JD: Explain that to me. [35:07] Speaker B: Well, there's a lot of opportunity. So yeah. And so with, with you may have, you know, an issue right now, but we have the opportunity to educate these people, to provide them with these tools and resources with a platform that's going to, to sustain their, their growth throughout their career. And with a high touch point from an advisor to really progress your economic state over and over, year after year. [35:34] JD: You know, one that's always gone close to my heart or made me stressed out is the emergency fund stats that are out there. Like, yeah, what was it? It was like if people don't have 600 bucks or something. [35:48] Maria Behrens: It's like $3,000 is the average savings account in the United States. [35:51] JD: Blows me away. And that gets me fired up about financial literacy, financial wellness. [35:57] Troy Tar: The scary thing was, is even just how many people can't afford a $500 emergency or even higher, they. They have two stats. One's 500, one's a thousand. They're both just grossly out of whack. [36:08] JD: How stressed out are those people? I mean, how can they even get through the day to day? That's got to be hard. [36:12] Troy Tar: I just wanted to let you guys know I finished this. [36:14] JD: I'm close. [36:15] Maria Behrens: I'm close. [36:16] JD: Okay, we're going to move. We're going to move to our kind of final segment here. You gu. Probably gonna wanna. You stay in your seats, but you're probably gonna want to steer clear of this. If you have ideas, we'd be more than welcome for you to share them. But you said that you weren't gonna name any names. Yeah, I want to play a game where we specifically name some names. I want to play a game. [36:40] Speaker E: Isn't that what that creepy dude from the. [36:43] JD: The Saw movies? [36:44] Troy Tar: Yeah. [36:44] Speaker F: If you want to play. [36:45] Troy Tar: Hello. Do you want to play a game? Play a game. [36:48] Maria Behrens: I want to play a game. Put that up on there. [36:50] Troy Tar: I like that, though. You want to play a game? You want to play a game? I want to play a game. [36:54] JD: I would like to look out at the 401k industry, and I'm come up with some logos that you think are not very well done. They suck. They're not very good. I gave you guys a little time to think about it. [37:08] Maria Behrens: Advisor. [37:10] Troy Tar: Wow. [37:11] JD: First of all, we're still here. This. All right. I will counter you. This is a great logo. I know. They've got the little toggles that tell me they're customized. [37:21] Troy Tar: That's what I'm feeling. [37:23] JD: By the way, when you get rid of the. The I and the O, that's new hip way of creating a company name. Right? [37:30] Troy Tar: Disruptor. [37:31] Maria Behrens: Right. [37:32] JD: You get rid of those vowels, you know you're out of something. Great with financial literacy. [37:36] Speaker E: You can't spell. [37:41] JD: I have three that I'd like to cover. And then I want to get some of your. You get one, I get one. [37:46] Troy Tar: No, you get three. [37:46] JD: I get three. [37:47] Maria Behrens: You can stand back. [37:48] JD: I'm gonna go three, number three. I looked out there and it's Mutual of Omaha. Brandon will throw it up on the screen. Everyone's gonna see it right now. Believe it or not, Mutual is in the 401k biz. They are a record keeper. That is a true fact. But I'm claiming, however, it's not okay to represent Native Americans as part of your logo. That's not a cool thing anymore. [38:11] Speaker E: American. [38:11] Troy Tar: Right here. [38:12] JD: Nice. [38:13] Troy Tar: I'm mostly not. [38:14] Maria Behrens: Too many things bother you, though, so I'm not sure that does. [38:17] Speaker E: No. [38:17] Troy Tar: So, I mean, like the Washington Redskins chief of Lion Eye where I grew up in Chicago. It's not a big deal. [38:22] JD: Daniel State Aztecs, they get sued all the time by groups. [38:25] Troy Tar: Oh. [38:25] Maria Behrens: Different for others. [38:26] Troy Tar: Perhaps you think it's a compliment to me, but I do. I'm not necessarily a fan of Mutual Omaha's logo. Yeah. [38:32] JD: Okay. Fair enough. [38:33] Troy Tar: Yeah. [38:33] JD: It's got a little Indian. I just didn't like the. [38:35] Troy Tar: Plus, you know, secretly. We all know they don't do their own record keeping, Right? [38:38] Speaker E: Sure. [38:39] JD: A lot of those companies outsource that. Here's number two. Here's number two. That. I think this is just my personal opinion. I didn't spend days researching this. I just looked around, research. And this is not going to shock the audience or shock you because this is a payroll provider. But throw Paychex's logo up here. It's not even a logo. It's freaking typography. It's. It's a font slanted in blue. There's literally no logo to it. I could create that logo in Word, In Word, Microsoft Word in a matter of 30 seconds. So paychecks, up your freaking logo game and up your administration game. I'm just saying, Jim. [39:20] Maria Behrens: Slamming. [39:23] Speaker F: Don't do it. [39:24] JD: I'm going to do it. Don't do it. Great partner of ours. I love these guys. Consultants is the standard. Oh, don't get sad. Standard. But look at your logo. It looks like a blue flag from clipart in the 90s and you put your name on top of it. [39:41] Maria Behrens: Maybe it was and now they've kept it. [39:43] JD: I. I hope you didn't pay someone in New York, like tens of thousands of dollars to create that logo. [39:49] Troy Tar: You know, there's a graphic artist person that's watching this right now. [39:52] Maria Behrens: And I made that. [39:53] JD: That's a clip art. I think we're gonna get six with that said. I love the standard. Great company. Good stuff. So maybe your logo doesn't matter that much. [40:04] Speaker F: Any other logos out of that. But I got a name that I just can't handle. [40:07] JD: Yeah. PJIM P. Jim. So it's not a logo. You're just claiming Prudential Funds decided we need to rebrand this for Whatever reason, I don't think it was just rebranding. I think there are some businesses structure there going on, some stuff that happen. But let's go with an acronym. Screw it. [40:26] Troy Tar: PIM Z in our name. [40:28] Maria Behrens: So, you know, do you all have one that you want to throw out here or is this too scary of a landscape? [40:35] Troy Tar: It's really not a scary landscape for me. I've been doing this 21 years, so I've been around. But I'm trying to think of the logo that I just don't love. I don't know. I actually wish I would have taken a look more time to think. [40:47] JD: I should have given you some study time. [40:48] Speaker F: Yeah, yeah. [40:49] Troy Tar: Because I. I'll definitely come back with one though for you guys. Yeah, absolutely. [40:53] Maria Behrens: Brandon will splice that in. [40:57] Speaker F: Just hey, for the camera, just say, brandon, I don't like this. And then he'll attack it on. [41:01] JD: Yeah, can you do that? Go ahead. [41:03] Maria Behrens: Really? [41:03] Troy Tar: We just don't like this logo. [41:10] JD: Okay, guys, thank you for joining us for the ria. Thank you. [41:14] Troy Tar: This is awesome. Get your fosters. [41:17] JD: Unfortunately, Mark has another show to film here in about 30 minutes. But here are the retireholics. These guys are advisors. We're changing the retirement plant industry one foster spoil can at a time. [41:30] Troy Tar: Thank you guys so much. [41:31] JD: See you. [41:31] Troy Tar: Thank you. Thank you. That was fun, guys. [41:35] JD: Good job. You are a stud. [41:37] Troy Tar: Well done. [41:38] JD: I'm young. [41:39] Troy Tar: We apologize.