A Conversation With ... Brian Allen

We provide independent consulting services in the four areas of retirement plan management. (Employee Retirement Income Security Act), the law that governs retirement plans, passed in 1974, is the first area that we do consulting in. The second is investments. The third is participants, and the last is vendors. Our clients are primarily companies. On March 31, we just passed $1 billion under advisement and (manage $1.04 billion in) retirement plans … (for) 40 companies … throughout the Midwest. We only have a handful of clients locally. We’ve got 13 employees.

Your company deals specifically with pension plans, right?

Yes, but pension plans is a global term (that) technically means any kind of employer-sponsored retirement plans. Technically a 401(k) is what’s called a defined-contribution pension plan. Most people think of (pensions) as the defined-benefits plans, which there are much less of today than there used to be.

Tell us about Pension Focus, a not-for-profit conference your company sponsors.

This year’s Pension Focus was May 17 and 18 at Chateau on the Lake in Branson. It’s something that I’m very proud of … We had top industry people from Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Florida; we had Department of Labor officials, Internal Revenue Service officials, and about 100 retirement-plan sponsors attend.

Was there a particular topic addressed at Pension Focus this year?

Yes. … Last year, one of the biggest pieces of legislation regarding retirement plans was passed. It’s called the Pension Protection Act of 2006, so a lot of the conference (was) going over the rules established in the Pension Protection Act. Also, in the last few years, people have really become more aware of the liability that (comes with sponsoring) retirement plans. So there’s a lot of industry buzz right now about how a company can run their retirement plan in such a way to limit their liability from employee lawsuits and from governmental scrutiny.

Is there an area of the new law that companies find confusing?

One of the big things right now is probably the difference between giving your employees investment education and investment advice. There is a line between those two things, and knowing what is being given to employees – a lot of times, it’s not being given by the company (sponsoring the plan), it’s being given by a broker or somebody who sold the plan to the (employer).

Is giving advice prohibited?

It’s not prohibited, but the employer incurs more liability when they allow that, so they have to track it more carefully. With the Pension Protection Act, there are two forms of advice that can be given. One would be (through) an independent computer model, independent of whatever company is handling the retirement plan’s investments. The second is a level-fee adviser, meaning that you certify that your compensation as an adviser does not change based on the advice you’re providing. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but a lot of times, the brokers, or whoever sold the plan, may make more money off of one investment in the plan than another, so they have a conflict of interest. If (advisers) structure the program so compensation can’t be altered, and are truly independent, then that satisfies (the law).

What advice do you have for companies to alleviate retirement-plan liability?

To form a committee to watch over their retirement plans, meet regularly and document what you talked about.

What goals are you working on now?

I guess $2 billion – I haven’t formalized that. Probably the most immediate thing is that we’re beginning a participant investment advice program that we’ll launch on July 1. Those 40 client companies that I mentioned employ about 45,000 people, so we … see that as an opportunity for us to actually provide investment advice that is compliant with the Pension Protection Act and all its rules.

You’ve been in this line of work since 1989; what drew you into it?

I’m a certified financial planner, and I graduated with a degree in economics from Missouri State University in December 1989. I got into financial planning and ... then started this company in 1994.

Tell us about your family and interests.

My wife of almost 18 years is Gwynda. Our daughter Stephanie is finishing up her junior year of high school in Nixa, and Zachary is finishing up his eighth-grade year. They’re both involved in soccer … we’ve been involved in soccer forever. (This month), my wife and son and I ran in The Kitchen 5K.

Interview by Features Editor Maria Hoover. You can e-mail her with suggestions for future installments of this feature at mhoover@sbj.net.