| | April 2021MANAGEHRMAGAZINE.COM19While the participant outcomes are driven by a plan's features, and designs, which are evaluated in the plan administration piece, participant success is also evaluated in the context of investment processes. "As such, the compass report serves as a guide for our clients to understand how we manage their plans, and it enables us to get a clear picture of their goals and develop the right roadmap. This sets the pace for the dialogue and gets everything going," comments Dan Schroeder, Principal and Director of Retirement Plan Consulting at Advanced Capital Group. ACG assigns both an investment consultant and day-to-day relationship manager to oversee their relationship with clients while focusing on the outcomes and administration aspects. This allows the company to refine the services they deliver further.ACG is also able to develop an internally developed WellCheck Report for clients based on the demographic feed collected from their record keepers on an ongoing basis. It then looks into participant saving rates, distributions from plans, and overall asset allocation to develop a scorecard measuring the effectiveness of the existing education programs. With this metric, the company can focus on the right areas--be it the savings rate of a group, asset runoff, or more. At the same time, ACG evaluates the cost of the ineffectiveness of a wellness program. "What this means is if participants fail to reach retirement age whole or don't have enough money to retire, what is the cost incurred by a company of having such employees? Based on the study, we work closely with clients to determine how to improve the retirement preparedness of such participants using either employer or employee savings. Our goal is to ensure a secure and healthy retirement for employees," Schroeder adds.ACG's premier advisory services are backed by a team of seasoned industry experts who hold over 15 years of experience. At the center of ACG lies its retirement plan consulting division along with the wealth management group, which is an integral part of the retirement planning group. In addition, the company also houses an institutional asset management group that manages high-quality fixed income portfolios through individual securities on a day-to-day basis. This, in turn, provides ACG's consultants and wealth managers with an incredible opportunity to not just pick amongst pooled products for their programs, but also continuously interact with asset managers who work daily in the market buying and selling securities. Langowski notes, "ACG is driven by the mission to help a plan sponsor have a successful plan in whatever way the plan sponsor defines the term success. And, we have the experience, the education, and the resources to make it happen." ACG creates its investment performance reviews and writes commentaries based on the direct conversations of its staff with investment firms, investment managers, instead of relying on external aggregators.A Testament to Exemplary ServiceBack in 2015, ACG implemented its very first fully-customized, 24x7 online wellness program for one of its clients. The program was integrated with all of the client's corporate benefits, messaging, current wellness program, and was branded to them. While implementing the program, the company's Director of Benefits stated that they wanted to see at least 20 percent participation in a year or the program was not reaching the desired goal. ACG implemented the program and put in place multiple incentive programs during the year on a routine basis. For a company with 11,000 employees, ACG was able to achieve a 54 percent participation rate. And this is an outstanding achievement considering the wide distribution of Dan Schroeder, Principal & Director of Retirement Plan Consulting
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