Industry Leader Interview, with Michelle Marsh, Chief Visionary Officer, Retirement Plan Concepts & Services
Dawn Hynes Question:
As someone who is out there and interacting with a lot of folks in the industry, what is your outlook on 2022? What do you think is the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity for TPAs in our industry as we wrap up 2021 and get near 2022?
Michelle Marsh Answer:
I think 2022 will continue to be a successful year. We are already seeing that going into the last selling quarter of 2021, which results in a lot of 1- 1 -2022 new clients for us. We are not seeing a slow down as a matter of fact I think even this year has been busy all year, which isn’t normal. We normally get a few dips but we have not had many of those. So, I think that’s going to go into 2022.
I do think some of the mandated state retirement plans are pushing some of the business. Not so much in my area but I know my neighboring state Illinois has a required state plan if you don’t have your own plan. I think more and more employers are not willing to rely on the government for a retirement plan. Since they’ve done so well with social security, I’m not sure they want a second retirement plan governed by their state, so a lot of them are looking to implement their own plans.
I think we continue to see an increase in smaller employers wanting to put aside more money. They’re very profitable so we’re seeing combo plans put in more aggressively and I don’t think that’s going to stop. I think the difficulty will continue to be (finding) trained personnel and higher-level personnel.
I think you’re going to have to look at more ways to become efficient using AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology. Also, potentially segmenting some things where currently you have that A-to-Z processing with a consultant. You may have to pull some of the Census Scrubbing and Importing and those types of things off to a lower-level person.