Bart Spachek, ChFEBC • Overland Park, KS
Reign Benefits Consulting • Cornerstone Securities LLC
I have a very consistent message for potential clients that I call the “Retirement Two-Step.” I work primarily with individuals and their retirement plans, whether they are government employees; in an educational, health care, or charitable non-profit organization; or work at a for-profit company.
One of the growing trends in our industry is the availability of self-directed investment options within retirement plans. Most people are not aware of this and believe their only viable investment choices are within the usually limited menu of funds offered by their plan. My “Two-Step” message is that they can take more control over their retirement planning and investments and combine a self-directed option with professional active money management.
I start with a simple question: “This is your retirement account for your future retirement. If you don’t take control of it, who will?” This resonates with people after the market turmoil over the last 15 years. Many have been significantly affected by seeing their retirement accounts lose so much value—not once, but twice. That resulted in damaging investment behavior, where most people simply do not feel adequately prepared or educated to make wise investment choices. So they are usually very open to having a quick initial discussion of what our firm can offer.
A self-directed option opens up hundreds of investment options within a retirement account. We couple that with active investment strategies that are monitored by a team of professionals watching over portfolio strategies constantly, which creates an entirely new and attractive dynamic.
The challenge is finding an efficient way of targeting the companies, agencies, or organizations in our area that provide a self-directed investment option within their retirement plan. We spend a considerable amount of our time doing our own research, followed by networking to get in front of people that are a part of those companies.
My wife, who is a member of the firm, is very adept at client relationships and in building our networks. We share this responsibility and constantly focus on it. It has taken our firm close to three years to build our methodology, which has proven to be quite successful. Right now we are exploring options to take our business model to other markets, and I am very optimistic about that process.
Disclosure: Investment advisory services offered through Cornerstone Securities LLC. Reign Benefits Consulting is independent of Cornerstone Securities LLC.
Photography by Steve Puppe
