The Complete Advisor Reference

Appointment Referral Services

https://www.benchmarkmyplan.com

WELCOME

Congratulations on your decision to join Benchmark My Plan’s Program. This reference guide serves as an overview to our appointment setting process, how we generate opportunities and manage the appointment setting process.

It is important to read this overview and refer to it as needed to answer questions and maximize your success in the program.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Benchmark’s Appointment Setting Process
   
2. Why Plan Sponsors Want to Meet
   
3. Appointment Confirmations
   
4. Pre-Meeting Recommendations
   
5. Discovery Process
   
6. Questions to Avoid and Why
   
7. Key Strategies for Success
   
8. Lead Data Sheet
   
9. Cancelations and Requesting
   
10. Replacement Appointments (QC Process)
    
11. Contact Us

BENCHMARK MY PLAN

APPOINTMENT PROCESS

Benchmark My Plan, LLC maintains a call center of market research specialists who contact and conduct retirement plan satisfaction surveys with retirement plan sponsors. The market research specialist will ONLY conduct a survey with one of two people: the ultimate decision maker on the plan, or the person with the day –to –day responsibility for plan management.

NOTE: All initial meetings are offered to plan sponsors on a no-cost, no-obligation basis.

The Process:

• Geographic Filtering: A Benchmark My Plan Market Specialist will survey employers nationally with more focus being given to parts of the country where Benchmark My Plan’s advisor/partners are located and the markets they serve to generate consistent and qualitative appointments.
• Qualification Process: All appointments undergo a strategic qualification process which identifies areas of opportunity the advisor, to demonstrate your skills & expertise and provide the right experience for a successful meeting.
• Appointment Scheduling: A Benchmark My Plan Market Specialist schedules an appointment with the plan sponsor for a no-cost, no-obligation plan review with a qualified retirement plan advisor in Benchmark My Plan’s network and sends a biography and firm profile of the assigned advisor to the plan sponsor.
• Appointment Confirmation: A Benchmark My Plan Market Specialist confirms the appointment time and date with the plan sponsor; They will then transfer the appointment over to Benchmark My Plan to assign and notify the advisor of the upcoming appointment. A secondary attempt will be made to the Plan Sponsor up to (2) days prior to the scheduled appointment. (See Email on Following Page).

WHY PLAN SPONSORS WANT TO MEET:

During this survey, the market research specialist will probe the plan sponsor with questions and/or information, which might uncover dissatisfaction with the existing plan or advisor. Many times, sponsors might not be outwardly dissatisfied, but simply have little understanding of their existing plan, the role of an advisor, concerns regarding compliance with fiduciary responsibilities, or other opportunities. Some sponsors may also be simply interested in a plan review and “second opinion” from a retirement plan specialist outside of their incumbent plan management relationship.
Any of these situations may result in the market research specialist offering and scheduling an appointment with the plan sponsor for the opportunity to meet with a retirement adviser in Benchmark My Plan network.

While there are several reasons why a plan sponsor will schedule an appointment through this program, there are six primary motivators that lead to the decision to take a meeting:

• Interest in reviewing their plan: to insure they are providing the best plan possible for the company, management, and plan participants.
• Interest in learning: what a true “Company Retirement Plan Specialist” offers in improvements to plan quality, quality of service, education, or other key plan and service quality factors.
• Questions or concerns: about their fiduciary obligations under ERISA law and their requirements to comply with DOL regulations such as 408(b) (2).
• Miscellaneous problems: or questions with plan administration, poor enrollment, participant education and other key service issues.
• Change is indicated: The sponsor has already determined they wish to “shop their plan” or change advisors.

APPOINTMENT CONFIRMATIONS

How Plan Sponsors are Notified of Upcoming Appointments

After the initial appointment scheduling, A confirmation email will be sent to the plan sponsor introducing the advisor that will be coming to meet with them (2-3) days prior to appointment. A final phone confirmation will be conducted (2) business days prior to your scheduled meeting with the plan sponsor to ensure no last-minute cancellations.

See Below Example:

PRE-MEETING RECOMMENDATIONS

Benchmark My Plan, LLC will conduct a total of (2-3) appointment confirmations. The initial confirmation is conducted over the phone, followed by a secondary confirmation sent via email (Preceding page). This email is sent to the sponsor on average two to three days prior to appointment date and will include your advisor biography along with your credentials. After the confirmation email is sent to the plan sponsor, you will receive an appointment announcement from Benchmark My Plan along with the lead data sheet covered on page 12 of this overview. As a safeguard, we conduct a final appointment reminder (2) business days prior to your scheduled meeting with the plan sponsor to ensure no last-minute cancellations.

Additional confirmation and Pre-meeting recommendations below:

• Please do not call to confirm your appointments. Too many confirmations can be annoying to the sponsor and indicate lack of communication and disorganization between our firms.
• The appointment program is designed for a face-to-face meeting. Please refrain from sending pre-meeting questionnaires, requests for plan financial data, proposals, or promotional material prior to the meeting. Remember, the sponsor doesn’t know who you are yet and has not met you. Such requests to disclose financial or plan information can make the sponsor uncomfortable and might be negatively perceived.
• Please do not call sponsors in advance of the meeting to conduct pre-meeting plan discussions. This program is designed where the introductory meeting is the discovery process.
• Check the sponsor company website! Not only is it helpful to know what the company’s business is, but by searching the personnel sections of the company site, you may uncover people you have shared personal or business relationships with in the past who may prove to be valuable allies.
• Have the latest copy of the plan sponsors Form 5500 filing if available.

DISCOVERY PROCESS: PROVIDING AN “EXPERIENCE”

It is important to remember that prior to your first meeting, in most cases, the plan sponsor does not know who you are (except for your bio), other than you have been recommended by Benchmark My Plan as a 401(k) retirement plan specialist in their region and will be offering an independent evaluation of their plan. Therefore, a subtle investigatory or “SOFT SALES” approach to the first meeting is highly recommended.

While some plan sponsors are aware of shortcomings with their existing plan or advisor, many are not. Therefore, we advise against being highly critical of the incumbent plan or advisor relationship during the first meeting. Rather, view the first meeting objective as an opportunity to provide the plan sponsor an “experience”, via a demonstration of your knowledge and expertise, which they will naturally compare against their incumbent advisor or provider relationship.

The key to providing that experience starts with a meaningful discovery process, which could include some or all of the elements of plan and service evaluation below:

• An examination of the operational costs associated with the plan, gathering or reviewing plan document and / or service agreement. Has the plan sponsor taken steps to ensure that plan fees disclosed under 408(b)(2) meet the standard of “reasonableness” required by the DOL.
• Examination of the sponsor’s adherence to the investment policy statement (if they have one).
• Insuring education and communication offered by the incumbent provider/ advisor is meaningful and worth the fees associated with such services.
• Defining and evaluating the service provider deliverables.
• An in-depth exploration of key fiduciary issues and the advisor’s role in achieving adherence in meeting these requirements (areas that often require significant education for the sponsor).
• Appropriate investment choices, styles and reasonable investment fees.
• Updated plan design that allows key executives to maximize deferment and tax advantages.

TOP 15 DISCOVERY PROCESS QUESTIONS:

• Do you have an investment policy statement; are you following it?.
• Have you designated an “Investment Committee” that meets on a regular basis? Does your committee receive the guidance of an un-biased qualified professional?
• Is the current investment advisor receiving compensation for managing your plan personally related to or associated with a plan fiduciary or investment committee decision maker that could be construed as a conflict of interest?
• Are all plan fiduciaries aware they are fiduciaries and are they aware of the meaning, responsibilities, and extent of their potential personal liability? Have all fiduciaries signed a fiduciary agreement?
• Now that providers have disclosed all fees under new regulations such as 408(b)(2) and 404 (a)(5), have you benchmarked or otherwise assessed plan fees to ensure they meet the standard of “reasonableness” as required by the DOL?
• Are participants in your plan supplied with updated and accurate plan information necessary to help them make informed investment decisions? Is your current provider/ investment advisor proactive in this role?
• Do the investment options in your plan continue to represent the asset classes for which they were originally chosen?
• Do your investment options include “model portfolios” or “lifestyle” fund choices?
• Does your advisor work only at the plan level, or at both the plan and employee levels?
• Are you aware of the opportunities that the Pension Protection Act offers to substantially improve your plan (i.e. auto enrollment, better default plan options that offer Safe Harbor protection, etc.)?
• Is your plan 404(c) compliant?
• If you are 404(c) compliant, is your plan currently covered by a Fidelity Bond?
• Are you aware of the schedule to deposit participants’ contributions in the plan and have you made sure it complies with the law?
• If your plan allows for individually directed accounts, are you aware of the increased fiduciary responsibility for individual participant’s investment choices? Have you taken appropriate measures, with the help of an investment professional, to insure you are providing a source of guidance to assist participants in making sound investment decisions?
• ALWAYS LAST: If you can think of one thing you would change about your company retirement plan, what would that be?

QUESTIONS TO AVOID AND WHY?

At Benchmark My Plan, Advisor feedback teaches us what works in introductory meetings and what does not.

Unless the lead sheet indicates the sponsor has already identified specific serious plan dissatisfactions or an interest in changing advisors or providers, you should avoid opening your meeting with the following:

• Asking the plan sponsor what they would like to change or are specifically unhappy about with their current plan or advisor.

Unless you already know there are specific serious dissatisfactions, this question places the entire meeting in jeopardy if you fail to get a reply affirming specific dissatisfactions. Most plan sponsors lack the qualifications or expertise to properly assess a quality plan vs. a poorly established or managed plan. If you don’t know, don’t ask!

• “If I review your plan and uncover problems, would you be willing to change or hire me to manage your plan.”

Such “trial close” questions are transparent efforts that often will elicit a defensive response with any prospect. Asking a prospect to make sales determination based upon a hypothetical scenario damages your credibility and the credibility of the program.

You should use the discovery process, good questions, and evaluation to allow the sponsor to uncover areas of shortcoming or dissatisfaction with your assistance. This process puts you in the psychological driver’s seat and allows the plan sponsor to view you as their “NEW” plan advisor.

Remember:  Benchmark My Plan, LLC offers the plan sponsor a “no-cost, no-obligation opportunity to have a retirement plan specialist review their plan.

The goal is for you to get a second meeting!

KEY STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

• 1^st Meeting Discovery Process: Advisors should arrive at the first meeting prepared with thoughtful questions pertaining to the employer’s plan and perhaps a sample benchmarking or investment report.  Many sponsors believe that their current plan is fine or that their current provider does regular benchmarkings for them. It is a good idea to “re-pitch” them on the benefits of doing a full benchmarking. Ideally, the first meeting should not be viewed as a “sales” meeting but an opportunity for the referred advisor to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise and gain the comfort and trust of the employer.  With this accomplished, the referred advisor should collect the necessary documents to perform either a basic fiduciary review or plan benchmarking for the employer.
• 2^nd Meeting Recommendations:  In most cases, the second meeting with the employer offers the best chance to “trial close” or win new business.  Results of your review and analysis should be discussed with the employer and alternatives presented.
• Drip Process: Despite your best efforts, you will not likely win new business with every prospect.  There can be many reasons an employer may delay making necessary plan changes, but if you succeed in providing the employer with a positive and impressive “experience” through this program, they will remember you!Employing a “drip process” that allows you to stay in contact with the employer will often result in new opportunities to engage the prospect and win them over.

THE LEAD DATA SHEET

Plan Sponsor:	First Enterprise Bank, Inc.	EIN#:
Appointment Date:	04/15/2020	Phone:	(405) 680-8225
Appointment Time:	02:00 PM	Email:	[email protected]
Primary Contact	Juanita Russell
Title
Address:	2115 SW 44th St Oklahoma City, OK 73119-2616
Fund Provider:	Trinity
Plan Administrator:	Trinity
Eligible Employees:
Participants:
Plan Assets:	$ 1,700,000.00
Plan Advisor:	Oklahoma Finacial

CANCELATIONS AND RESCHEDULING

Appointments can be assigned to your account on a daily basis. Naturally, some appointments will cancel or postpone. When this happens, a Benchmark My Plan Market Research specialist will reschedule the appointment. Final Reminders are done with sponsors (2-3) days prior to the date of the appointment. Once a final reminder has been done on an appointment, Benchmark My Plan and Benchmark My Plan steps back and the Advisor takes over. If an advisor needs an appointment rescheduled after a final reminder is done, the advisor is responsible for rescheduling the appointment.  NOTE:  Cancellations can sometimes occur on the day of a scheduled meeting. We recommend you provide your account executive your cell phone number so that they might be able to reach you and notify you of a last-minute cancellation.

Requesting a Replacement Appointment

No matter what qualifying we do before a meeting, we do not know how it will turn out until the client reports back to us after the meeting. Because of that, we have a process in place for requesting a replacement appointment which we have made as simple as possible. Please follow this link Here to submit your request for a replacement appointment. Some examples of why appointments are replaced are:

• Personal relationship with current advisor
• Contact is not part of the decision-making process
• No longer open to reviewing the plan
• Company already made a decision to make changes to their plan (with someone else)
• Plan is being shut down/dissolved
• Contact did not meet with me or was not in the office when I arrived (we call this a no show)

These are listed in order of frequency, from most common to least common. Once the QC (Quality Control) Request has been completed you will receive notification of the outcome. Furthermore, in the event you submit a request and the billing has taken place please be mindful that we do not authorize refunds but rather a replacement appointment. At that time the lead value will be issued to your account and go towards your next appointment. QC requests may be submitted up to 90 days after an appointment takes place. QC requests are usually resolved within a week or 2 but Warton does reserve the right to investigate QC’s up to 90 days from the day it is submitted.

CONTACT US

www.benchmarkmyplan.com
Ph: 866-797-8960