Regardless of how you feel about visiting the doctor, after you listen to my conversation with Dr. Greg Kasten, the Founder and CEO of Unified Trust Company and if you follow a few of his prescriptions or strategies they could help you make a lasting impact on the future of your retirement plan and workforce! There are a lot of memorable takeaways for anyone looking to explore some new concepts to get different results. Personally I liked when Dr. Kasten:
Compared how selecting a retirement plan service provider because of their great technology is like picking a hospital because it has a really nice parking lot!
Observed how unfortunately most employers think a retirement plan must be a good investment plan and why that thinking needs to be changed
Described key employee savings behaviors and tendencies and how you can use that knowledge to help them get better results without making them lift a finger!
Suggested it might help plan sponsors better fulfill their fiduciary responsibility by analyzing value by calculating outcomes divided by cost
Before we get started, a quick update that our research project is officially underway! The first step is where I am personally asking our listeners to get involved. It’s pretty simple, what’s the one question you have always wanted to ask your employees about your retirement plan but you have been afraid to. Don’t send us easy questions, we want to hear about a fork in the road you have come upon, a plan design change you are struggling with or a big project you are considering and you don’t know how it might be received by your workforce and what the potential human capital impact of your business could be. As we are expecting some juicy questions, we will keep your name and company private. After we compile the responses, sort to the most popular and interesting questions we will ask them to real participants and record their raw reactions. In April we will share the results with you in a podcast episode and a white paper. To participate, go to www.401kfridays.com/question where you can explore more information and privately submit your question!
Guest Bio
Dr. Gregory W. Kasten serves as founder and CEO of Unified Trust Company. Following graduation from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in 1980, he completed an internal medicine internship and anesthesiology residency at the university of Kentucky Medical Center and is a board certified anesthesiologist. He received a master of business administration degree with an emphasis on finance and investment management from the University of Kentucky College of Business Graduate School. Dr. Kasten was awarded the Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst designation by the Center for Fiduciary Studies, the Certified Financial Planner designation by the Denver College of Financial Planning, and the Certified Pension Consultant designation by the American Society of Pension Actuaries.
He has published more than 100 papers on financial planning and investment-related topics in various financial and business journals; written two editions of the book Retirement Success; and in 2005 he co- authored the first place winning paper entitled: “Post Modern Portfolio Theory” and presented the paper at the Financial Planning Association National Meeting. Dr. Kasten has given dozens of lectures on fiduciary best practices to pension professionals and Federal banking regulators.
In 2007-2009, Medical economics listed Dr. Kasten as one of “the 150 Best financial advisers for doctors” in the country. Dr. Kasten was inducted into the advisor Hall of fame by research Magazine in 2011 and in 2013 was named Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year by Employee Benefit Adviser Magazine. He has more than thirty years of investment experience and has been with the company since he founded it in 1985.
Dr. Kasten developed the Unified Fiduciary Monitoring Index® as a method of measuring mutual fund and predictive performance factors when observed from a fiduciary standpoint. In 2007-2010, Dr. Kasten oversaw development of the revolutionary UnifiedPlan®. The UnifiedPlan creates a “pension-like” experience for each 401(k) plan participant, and greatly improves their retirement success. Beginning in 2006, CEFEX, the Centre for Fiduciary Excellence, LLC, has annually certified Unified Trust to the Fiduciary Practices for Investment Advisors. Unified Trust was among the first Investment advisors globally to successfully complete the independent certification process, and was the first trustee certified in the United States. Unified Trust was certified for its discretionary investment services provided in a trust environment for trustee-directed and participant-directed DC plans and individual investors. Created as a discretionary trustee fiduciary service, Unified Trust Company’s goal is to always provide loyalty and expert standard of care to all clients.
401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview
Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over fifty prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!