It's a common trope within the science fiction genre. You can picture it. A barren wasteland of depleted resources, depleted will, depleted humanity. Set in shades of dark gray and darker gray, you can sense the dystopian hopelessness.
This isn't a scene from the latest Matthew McConaughey blockbuster. It's the vision of fiduciary guru Don Trone has of the future of America's retirement plans. As he states in a recent interview (see, "Exclusive Interview: Don Trone Reveals 401(k) Plan Sponsors Want This Instead of a Fiduciary," FiduciaryNews.com, November 18, 2014), "I'm afraid it's going to look like the retirement version of Obamacare – it will be a government-run, mandatory plan similar in design to the Federal Retirement Thrift."
Apparently, the problem all begins with a situation we're all familiar with. Now, we know the advantages of fiduciary awareness and the power of offering services that appeal to fiduciary duties. We have all proudly and confidently stuffed them into our marketing briefcases and trudged off to our friendly neighborhood 401(k) plan sponsor. There, we expounded on the virtues of fiduciary.
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What happened next surprised us. Rather than seeing satisfaction in their eyes, we saw fear. We wanted to comfort them with our fiduciary prowess, yet they only felt the burden of their fiduciary albatross. It evoked all the allure of a stank prison, and their urgent reflex was to escape post-haste.
I once gave a brilliant presentation to a $60 billion plan. This was years ago before the rest of the world began speaking fiduciary. My pitch addressed every conceivable fiduciary need a plan sponsor could have. I showed the trustees a clearly articulated easy-to-understand plan to transition from the way they had been doing things to the way they should be doing things. I thought I nailed it. Not only were my words impeccable, but I was the one initially brought in as the preferred fiduciary counselor. The other presenters were mere cannon fodder.
You can guess what happened. When I later asked my internal advocate why I didn't get the business, the answer was, "You scared the H-E-double-toothpicks out of them." There you have it. It's like a doctor telling an obese man to lose weight or face an onslaught of undesired health problems. The patient, shunning the doctor's common-sense advice, opts to put his head in the sand and pretend there's no issue.
Well, what's that thing they say about bringing a horse to water?
So, think about it. The industry is currently engaged in a civil war about what? About the right to claim the high ground on a subject the client abhors.
Does that make sense? To anyone?
Don't get me wrong. The role and the rule of fiduciary – and by "fiduciary" I don't mean some watered down thing the SEC might be considering, but the strong centuries-old tradition of trust law – must continue to take precedence. And, as promoters of such knowledge, we must provide this service in spite of the bulk of clients whose best interest demands it but who wish to ignore it. If we don't, these masses will be lead like lambs to the slaughter Trone alludes to. And we'll be right there will them.
If we don't want to see our industry in ruination, we must change our methods. We must change our focus. We can't simply strong-arm the recalcitrant horse to water, relying solely on our fiduciary competence to demand the animal slake its thirst. No. We must instead move from the stern disciplinarian to the compassionate leader. Ultimately, rather than reciting reams of regulatory compliance literature, we might be better off using the other half of our brain to build empathetic trust.
Success comes when the horse will want to drink the water, not because we led it to the trough, but because it saw us drink the water first.
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Christopher Carosa
Chris Carosa has been writing a weekly article and monthly column for BenefitsPRO online and BenefitsPRO Magazine since 2011 and is a nationally recognized award-winning writer, researcher and speaker. He’s written seven books, including From Cradle to Retire: The Child IRA; Hey! What’s My Number? – How to Increase the Odds You Will Retire in Comfort; A Pizza The Action: Everything I Ever Learned About Business I Learned By Working in a Pizza Stand at the Erie County Fair; and the widely acclaimed 401(k) Fiduciary Solutions. Carosa is also Chief Contributing Editor of the authoritative trade journal FiduciaryNews.com and publisher of the Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel, a weekly community newspaper he founded in 1989. Currently serving as President of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and with more than 1,000 articles published in various publications, he appears regularly in the national media. A “parallel” entrepreneur, he actively runs a handful of businesses, including a small boutique investment adviser, providing hands-on experience for his writing. A trained astrophysicist, he also holds an MBA and has been designated a Certified Trust and Financial Advisor. Share your thoughts and story ideas with him through Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/christophercarosa/)and Twitter (https://twitter.com/ChrisCarosa).
