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From the Desk of the President: A Time of Reflection…

In a business that often moves glacially and at other times, very swiftly, we are constantly taking stock, adjusting the sails, fine tuning our course. However, the start of a new year seems a particularly appropriate time to reflect on the past and consider what’s ahead. First and foremost, our thoughts turn towards those who have made our success possible: our associates, our advisor-partners, our clients and participants and our business partners. NWPS has welcomed more than 80 new clients in 2022 representing tens of thousands of new participants and millions of retirement savings dollars. We sincerely thank all of those who have put their trust and faith in NWPS. We will not let you down. Looking forward, 2023 promises to be an exciting, dynamic time for NWPS. We have made several additions to senior staff. Our reach and industry visibility are on the rise. We are working hard on new initiatives, including a variety of new managed account solutions, PEP launches, in-plan retirement income protection and SECURE 2.0 compliance and opportunities. It will be a busy year indeed. Our ownership by Raymond James continues to pay dividends. With their investment, we have increased staff, further strengthened our cybersecurity protection and enhanced our

NWPS Sponsors Wealth@wor(k) Conference in Las Vegas

NWPS recently sponsored the Advisor2x Wealth@wor(k) conference in Las Vegas, NV. After months of preparation and planning, Bryant Lester, Meg Swoboda, and the event production team of Advisor2x were instrumental in helping us attain one of the most high-profile sponsorships for NWPS in 2022. After a COVID-related pause, the event was enthusiastically attended and drew over 500 attendees. In an industry where professional gatherings continue to elevate content value and networking opportunities, Wealth@Work has become a must-stop destination on the conference trail. A true industry mixer, the crowd was comprised of financial advisors, recordkeepers, fund companies, and a myriad of other actors seen on the retirement plan stage.Wealth@wor(k) kicked off their three-day summit with a Sunday evening reception. NWPS was proud to sponsor refreshments, and graciously, the Advisor2x Team went out of their way to showcase our firm. With our logo in lights during the party, and the Vegas strip fountains as our backdrop, the event exemplified our commitment to growth and our strong partnership with Advisor2x. As a result of the heightened visibility, the NWPS team spent the week fielding questions and continuing conversations about who we are, what we do, and most importantly, why advisors consistently trust us

The universe is not as it appears. Neither are retirement plan service providers.

This past week, NASA unveiled images from the James Webb Space Telescope. These pictures have delighted, awed, and amazed us with images of deep space and the immeasurable number of stars, galaxies, and constellations in the earliest and deepest reaches of the universe. Immeasurable indeed! Astronomers tell us that if you held a grain of sand up to the sky at arm’s length, that tiny speck is the size of Webb’s now famous first image. It occurs to us that the universe of retirement plan service providers is quite similar. Everyone’s heard of the large recordkeepers, the Milky Ways and Andromedas of our industry: Fidelity, Vanguard, Empower, and the like. Perhaps more interesting are the smaller, more focused, and attentive recordkeepers that dot the spacescape. Here you’ll find NWPS. NWPS is certainly not a household name. When we ask most retirement plan advisors if they’ve heard of NWPS, we are treated to blank stares and stammers. Ask an advisor or client who has worked with NWPS however, and you’ll hear a galaxy of compliments: stellar, awesome, outstanding, capable, helpful, responsive. The list really does go on. We work with clients who are delighted that their NWPS consultant gets back to them the same day

NWPS Co-Sponsors the 2022 Broadridge Fi360 Solutions Conference!

Several hundred retirement plan industry professionals gathered in Austin, Texas last week to discuss the latest trends and important topics impacting the retirement plan market today. Industry giants such as ERISA attorney Fred Reish, Editor-in-Chief of 401(k)Specialist, John Sullivan and sales & marketing brand sage, Sheri Fitts shared their perspectives on everything from ESG investing, in-plan annuities, cryptocurrency, to SECURE 2.0 and so much more. The agenda was robust, relevant, and timely. The headliner was none other than Daymond John of NBC’s Shark Tank who reminded the audience that “responsibility must be taken, not given.” The “Retireholics” (have you seen these guys?) were also on hand providing their usual brand of levity and raucousness. NWPS co-sponsored the event and conducted a highly informative session on Demystifying 3(16) Services. Scores of questions were posed to the panel by audience members. Contact us to receive a copy of the presentation. Equally important to the agenda was the opportunity to visit with retirement plan veterans from every major discipline in the industry: advisors, custodians, recordkeepers, DCIOs, ERISA attorneys, middleware FinTechs, insurance companies, and brand consultants. So many professionals gathering to further the noble effort to provide plan sponsors and their participants the very

Back to the Basics – Pay Special Attention to the Fund Menu.

At some point, a certain amount of apathy and blasé comes to those who watch legal proceedings relevant to retirement plans. Another excessive fee lawsuit involving overpriced funds. More performance lagging investments. Failure to negotiate rising recordkeeping costs. However, a unanimous, swift, and pointed proclamation from the Supreme Court merits attention. And the most recent treatise demands that plan sponsors and their advisors go back to the basics with respect to retirement plan fund menus.In the matter of Hughes v. Northwestern University, SCOTUS rejected the idea that a fiduciary can escape the legal challenge of having imprudent investment options in the plan, as long as there are other, prudent options. Rather, the Court reinforced the notion that plan fiduciaries must monitor “all” plan investments and remove “any” imprudent ones. Furthermore, fiduciaries must consider all the investments “at regular intervals” to ensure that they are prudent. Is this being done? As a plan sponsor or a retirement plan advisor, are you regularly reviewing your plan’s fund menu? With all the focus on “financial wellness” and “fiduciary training,” let’s not forget the basics: Fiduciaries must actively review plan investment options, ideally against stated criteria, at regular intervals. Equally important is documentation of

Don’t let your current recordkeeper decide who your new recordkeeper will be.

Don’t let your current recordkeeper decide who your new recordkeeper will be. There has been considerable consolidation among retirement plan recordkeepers over the past few years.  The retirement plan business of Prudential Financial and MassMutual were recently purchased by Empower.  Principal acquired Wells Fargo’s retirement plan recordkeeping and trust business.  PNC Bank sold their book of retirement plan clients to Newport Group, who in turn recently announced that they (Newport) will merge into Ascensus.  Ascensus themselves has acquired over 30 third party administrators over the past few years.  Voya is rumored to be buying Alight.  It’s hard to keep track without a score card. Yet, plan sponsors and retirement plan advisors must keep track! The objective of the acquirer of course is to pick up several hundred or thousands of new plan clients from the exiting recordkeeper.  Post-acquisition, sponsors will likely have to transition to the new recordkeeper’s systems.  There will most assuredly be a new service agreement, new contacts, perhaps a new fee schedule and undoubtedly new (or missing!)  processes, procedures, features and benefits.  Despite this potential turmoil, many sponsors and advisors simply go with the flow and stand by while the plan transitions. This is unwise at best and negligent at worst. 

Revenue sharing is on the decline, as it should be.

The use of revenue sharing in retirement plans is on the decline, and this is a good thing. Plan sponsor surveys by both Callan and the Plan Sponsor Council of America highlight the decline in use of revenue sharing from over 21% of plans to about 15% in 2019. However, revenue sharing still runs rampant in smaller 401(k)s, and among 403(b) plans. Revenue sharing is an additional cost, tacked onto the expense ratio of a mutual fund or insurance product to pay for (typically) either the advisor’s services (aka 12(b)(1)s) and/or recordkeeping services (sub TAs). It ranges between 5 and 75 basis points and basically represents indirect and sub-surface payments from one service provider to another. The model is fraught with problems. For example: Uneven revenue sharing among different funds in a given plan means that some participants are paying more (in the form of a higher expense ratio) than others for the same service. Poorly disclosed revenue sharing leaves participants and many plan sponsors in the dark about what they’re paying. Indeed as many as 30% of plan sponsors admitted to not knowing if revenue share agreements were in force. Given all the recent fee litigation, sponsors should want to know, and advisors should

From the Desk of the President

It has been 6 months since NWPS officially became part of the Raymond James family of companies, and consistent with our initial messaging, it has been business as usual. NWPS continues to welcome new clients monthly, continues to adhere to our "no solicitation" policy of either plan sponsors or participants and has no plans to introduce Raymond James products or advisors to our clients. We have not changed our service model nor reduced staff. On the contrary, we have increased headcount over the last 6 months. We are also in the midst of an IT transition which will further enhance our cybersecurity capabilities and add more layers of protection for our clients and their participants. More visibly, we have rolled out and (already) enhanced a new retirement readiness tool on the participant website called iJoin. We're getting great feedback from participants. We have found that once a participant goes through the experience, they often return multiple times to review and tweak their retirement strategy —- which is exactly what we like to see. We've also added nearly two dozen short, BrainShark-like videos on everything from The Power of Compounding to The Cost of Waiting. Take a preview here. More enhancements in