ARA Executive Interview

What common services or actions make managing a retirement plan challenging for plan advisors and their clients? What are the main points plan advisors and plan sponsors should know about plan termination? How does auto portability benefit plan advisors, plan sponsors, and plan participants?Pete Welsh, Managing Director of Retirement and Wealth at Inspira Financial, joins the Ameri

What are the biggest challenges facing TPAs, RIAs and recordkeepers? And what will be most impactful from all that we’re seeing on the legislative and regulatory front? We turned to PenChecks’ President and CEO, Spiro Preovolos and Scott Okrasinski, the firm’s National Sales Director, to answer these important questions and more.They joined us to discuss PenChecks' transforma

Follow along with the Learning from the Success of Pension Risk Transfer .pdf. Click here to download.What did the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act’s passage in 2019 do for lifetime income in retirement plans, and what lessons can be learned from the success of pension risk transfer?We turned to Securian Financial to help answer these increasingl

The momentum around retirement income products has gained steam as participants are increasingly interested in adding a strategy for guaranteed lifetime income. With a wide range of features, fee structures, and implementation options, it can be difficult to know where to get started.Thankfully, we have Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America’s Michael De Feo to help expl

M&A expert Peter Campagna, Managing Partner at Wise Rhino Group, has a list of common emotions that advisors face when they decide to sell their business.“Fully 80% of M&A is managing emotions,” Campagna says. “The financial stuff is somewhat easy, but they’re selling their life’s work. They’re serial entrepreneurs who are going to become W-2 employees, and it�

Interest in guaranteed lifetime income is growing, but plan participants want more than just a reliable monthly income stream. Flexibility, accessibility, and other personalized features are paramount to helping participants achieve outcomes aligned with their unique priorities.We sit down with Michael De Feo, Head of Defined Contribution Distribution at Allianz Life Insurance Comp

Fee compression and commoditization have hit every area of financial services--retirement advisors are no exception and it’s only slated to get worse. Why, and how is it addressed? Much more will have to be done with much less, but it will create resilience and will improve the firm’s enterprise value if and when the business is sold. We turned to M&A advisory firm Wise Rhi

As retirement plan advisors certainly know, the reduction of defined benefit pension plans and the rise of their defined contribution counterparts means more Americans are more responsible for their income in retirement. While products and strategies exist to aid workers with accumulation and income, it’s a complicated challenge. Thank goodness Mike De Feo is here to help. De Feo

What’s happening with lifetime income products in retirement plans? It’s a loaded question and a major topic but thankfully, we have Brendan McCarthy here to help us sort it all out.McCarthy, Head of Retirement Investing at Nuveen, is on the front lines of the retirement income battle. He joins us to discuss the challenges of the 401(k) generation, what it will take to get wide

The Standard rocked the retirement plan recordkeeping world last October when it announced its acquisition of Securian Financial’s retirement plan recordkeeping business. Part of ongoing industry consolidation, it was major news for 401(k) advisors, sponsors and participants. How well is the integration going, what's next for the players, and how will it affect the retirement spa