Industry Leader Interview, with Russell Hooker, EVP Nova 401k Associates
Dawn Hynes Question:
What are some other areas where you (TPAs) can take advantage of perhaps taking over as a TPA on a case opportunity? A lot of folks are talking about the restatement process and it’s an opportunity to add value. Are you seeing things like that as leverage points to talk about picking up the TPA role on a plan?
Russell Hooker Answer:
Now, you mentioned another opportunity related to the restatement. You asked earlier about my optimism in the sales season. I think this actually may be the biggest opportunity because in many cases the restatement is going to result in a in a bill, an ad-hoc bill and not a regular bill they’re used to seeing. Bills create questions, questions create opportunities. A lot of times, if you’re working with the record keepers, they have programs in place where they might be helping to subsidize that transition, maybe they could get that restatement for a reduced or eliminated fee. So, if you’re a TPA sending out bills right now, be sensitive to that.
Make sure you’re engaging with your advisors and say your client may get a question on this. Here’s what’s going on. This is how we want to position it. Conversely, for me on the sales side, I want to be attacking on that. I want to say to my advisors, if you have clients that are not with us, they may be getting this bill, it’s a legitimate bill, this happens every six years. It’s no question about it, but it’s an opportunity to benchmark the plan both on the TPA side and the recordkeeper side. Because a lot of times advisors are thinking about how to benchmark the record keeper, but this might provide you the opportunity as a TPA to be on the receiving end, instead of the losing end on those benchmarking questions.