Deals and People September 7, 2018

Retirement Industry People Moves

Hub International acquires retirement plan consulting firm, and Fourth Point Wealth to build PlanMember Financial Center.

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Hub International Acquires Retirement Plan Consulting Firm

Hub International Investment Services Inc. has acquired the retirement plan consulting and financial services business of Cash & Associates (C&A).

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Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, C&A is an employee benefits, retirement and financial planning practice originally founded by John Cash, Jr. in 1980. John T. Cash, III joined him in 1990 and assumed leadership in 2005. Cash, III has turned C&A from strictly a life and health insurance firm into a practice whose professionals’ primary focus is helping individuals and corporations with their qualified retirement plans and personal wealth management needs.

Cash, III, CFP, president & CEO of C&A will join Hub Florida and report to Scott Millson, president of Employee Benefits of Hub Florida. His title will be senior vice president, Retirement Practice Leader HUB Florida.

Fourth Point Wealth to Build PlanMember Financial Center

Chris Janeway of Fourth Point Wealth in Newport Beach has announced an affiliation with PlanMember Securities Corporation as a new PlanMember Financial Center, expanding retirement, investment planning and financial education opportunities for investors, including educators and employees of nonprofit organizations in Newport Beach and the surrounding area. 

PlanMember, specializes in the fee-based 403(b), 457(b), and 401(k) marketplace. By partnering with PlanMember as a Financial Center, independent advisers such as Fourth Point Wealth can tap the support resources and preferred market access of a national company while maintaining their own local identity. To date, PlanMember has established 35 Financial Centers in 19 states, with a goal of expanding to 80 nationally.

After 10 years as an adviser with PlanMember’s Santa Barbara Financial Group, Chris Janeway opened Fourth Point Wealth in April.

“I started Fourth Point Wealth to integrate a client-focused, relationship-based service model with low-cost, up-to-date technology platforms for clients,” says Janeway. “So often, our financial futures are on unstable footing. We believe the key to enhancing client outcomes is coaching our clients so they understand exactly how they’re invested and why, making the whole structure much more stable.” 

PlanMember is a nationally recognized broker/dealer, investment adviser, and member of FINRA/SIPC. The company is headquartered in Carpinteria, California.

Data and Research September 7, 2018

Employees Not Realizing the Importance of Debt Control in Retirement Planning

Although a majority of workers thought workplace financial well-being programs would be either very or somewhat helpful in better preparing or saving for retirement, fewer than half of workers thought debt counseling or budgeting help would be helpful, EBRI found.

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In a special report analyzing data from its 2017 and 2018 Retirement Confidence Surveys, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) notes that a significant percentage of workers across the board reported feeling stressed about preparing for retirement in both surveys.

In particular, workers with lower incomes (64%), those who have not calculated how much they will need to save for retirement (65%), and those in fair or poor health (75%) said that they strongly or somewhat agreed that preparing for retirement makes them feel stressed in the 2018 survey.

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Thirty percent of workers overall reported worrying about finances at work. Debt was correlated with worrying; nearly three-quarters (71%) of those who said debt was a major problem worried about finances at work, compared with just 9% of those who said debt was not a problem. In addition, more than half (55%) of those who were not confident about living comfortably in retirement were worried about finances at work versus just 7% of those who were very confident, EBRI found.

Despite the correlation between debt and worrying about finances, although a majority of workers thought workplace financial well-being programs would be either very or somewhat helpful in better preparing or saving for retirement, fewer than half of workers thought debt counseling or budgeting help would be helpful, and fewer than four in ten (39%) workers thought student loan debt assistance programs would be helpful in preparing for retirement. However, younger workers were much more likely to perceive these programs as being helpful than older workers, EBRI notes.

Similarly, the majority of workers thought retirement planning and financial planning programs would increase their productivity at work, yet debt counseling (29%) was thought to be the least likely to be helpful for productivity.

Help calculating how much to save for a secure retirement (75% in the 2018 survey), help calculating how much to anticipate spending each month in retirement (72%), planning for health care expenses in retirement (72%), and help with comprehensive financial planning (68%) were all considered useful in financial well-being programs. And, other programs that had higher likelihoods for increased workplace productivity include financial planning (48%) and health care planning (47%) programs.

EBRI again points out that younger (ages 25 to 34) workers were more likely to think that debt counseling, expense management, prioritizing savings, and budgeting programs were helpful than older (ages 55 or older) workers.

The full EBRI Issue Brief is at https://www.ebri.org/pdf/EBRI_IB_457_RCSFW.20Aug18.pdf.

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