Retirement Chat: January 2023

January 04, 2023
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Companies that come to UBT for their retirement plans from their previous providers tell us they make the switch for a few common reasons. They want someone local, who’s in the community with them, they want personal service from someone they know, and they want all their services from one provider.

In this discussion, our experts, Jason and Stacy, highlight the benefits of bundled retirement plan services, what it means to have a relationship manager you can get to know and who takes the time to know you, and more. While this content is mostly for Human Resources managers, or other retirement plan sponsors, these strong relationships also benefit retirement plan participants and individual 401(k) account holders, as part of the “bundled services” mentioned is an education program tailored to helping you reach your retirement goals.

Jason

Hi everyone. Thanks for joining us for this episode of Retirement Chat. In this series of conversations, we discuss some key topics related to savings for retirement. The idea here is to build on a foundation of information to help you understand your retirement plan and to help you reach the retirement that you envision for yourself. Today we're going to be discussing relationship management. I am your host, Jason. Today I am super excited to welcome my guest, Stacy Gutschenritter. Stacy, would you mind telling the folks just a little bit about yourself?

Stacy

Sure, Jason. I am a relationship manager within the retirement plan services division. My role as a relationship manager is to be a single point of contact for my customers, and those customers are employers of company sponsored 401(k) plans.

Jason

And that kind of went into my first question, right, is what does the relationship manager do and how does it pertain to relationship or retirement plan services as far as that's concerned?

Stacy

So when I reflect back on what a relationship manager is, I really think about two of Union Bank's core values, and those core values are culture and relationships. And really I am a single point of contact for the employer and I help them administer their 401(k) plan.

Jason

Perfect. Is that something that's fairly unique to retirement plan services as far as UBT is concerned or is that something that most companies offer?

Stacy

I think that our competitors do offer some sort of relationship manager role, but I feel that we have a hand up in that. I have an entire team of individuals that I work with and we are all located in one location. So if I have a question or a concern that I need to bring to the employer's attention or vice versa, the employer has a question, I can literally ask one of my team members right there at 27th and Pine Lake.

Jason

So Stacy, I, I've heard you mention the words or the phrase bundled services. Could you explain just a little bit about what that means?

Stacy

Sure. As a bundled provider, all of those services are under one roof. That includes relationship management. You have an education team, you have a compliance testing team. We do all of the recordkeeping, distributions and contributions all under one department versus an unbundled provider where a client may have four or five different contacts for those services that we provide. And making it a little bit more challenging for the client to be able to determine who they contact for what services. We are probably the only regional bundled provider for retirement plan services.

Jason

And that certainly makes UBT unique in that sense, right?

Stacy

Yes.

Jason

In that space,

Stacy

Absolutely.

Jason

Fantastic. Yes. So just overall you know, could you just explain why you think or why we think it's important to have a single point of contact or a relationship manager for each plan?

Stacy

I think again, it goes back to Union Bank's core values and one of those core values is relationships. And it's so important to have a relationship with your employer or company, company that you're working with so that you can build trust and respect with that client and that they can then in turn reach out to you whenever they have issues or concerns.

Jason

Perfect. One thing that I have come across in my time is the idea of having somebody there having somebody in person meeting with somebody on a regular basis. Do you meet with your clients a lot of times on a regular basis or is it just sort of a once a year, twice a year type of a thing or how does that work?

Stacy

Yeah, the company just gets to dictate how often we meet, but most companies like to meet at least annually, semi-annually, quarterly. And that's at the plan, sponsor or company level. In addition, that does not include the education that's being provided and conducted by the education team.

Jason

So just to wrap up, first of all, I appreciate your time. Thanks Stacy. Just to wrap up this morning, so your role is of course the sort of being a single point of contact, but building relationships with clients and from what I'm hearing you say is that's fairly unique to our space as far as our competitors and what we offer compared to what our competitors do in that sense too, you're saying that we have a bundled service, so there is a, everybody is located in one. It's very unique to have everybody located in one location. And the importance of course, from your perspective, and correct me if I'm wrong, is not only to build that relationship but have that personal touch, right? And to, like you said, reflect the core values of the bank, having somebody as that personal touch and having somebody as that relationship manager. Is that sort of what I'm hearing?

Stacy

Yes, absolutely. I think it's oftentimes important to get to know your client on a personal level as well. So getting to know more about them personally, whether it be their family members or their spouse, or even if they have a baby that we're able to, you know, say congratulations when we need to. So it's again, going back to, I always go back to relationships and that's really what it's all about.

Jason

Well said. It's a very UBT thing for us to have to offer. Right. So I appreciate it, Stacy, thanks for your time this morning.

Stacy

Absolutely.

Jason

Please keep in mind that the information that was provided here is for informational purposes only. As educators we're able to give you education, we are not able to give you financial advice. This is strictly for your information only.

  • Personal
  • Retirement

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