New Hartford marketing campaign aims to sell retirement plans

NEW YORK — The Hartford (Conn.) Financial Services Group Inc. wants more financial advisers to sell retirement plans.
Last Tuesday, it unveiled a marketing campaign aimed at helping advisers understand the ins and outs of the retirement plan market, as well as the intricacies of the Pension Protection Act of 2006. As part of that campaign, which is called “Cracking the Code,” the insurer is touting a new retirement book that was written by two of its executives.
Only about 20% of all advisers handle retirement plans, said Tom Foster, a national spokesman for corporate retirement plans at The Hartford. Many avoid selling such plans, he said, because they perceive them as being too complex or having high turnover at the hands of fickle plan sponsors.
Mr. Foster, along with Todd D. Thompson, national vice president of the North Central division for the retirement plans group at The Hartford, recently wrote a book intended to answer advisers’ questions about selling retirement plans.
Advisers have been looking for a comprehensive guide to selling corporate retirement plans, Mr. Foster said.
“When I speak with advisers, they often ask if there is anything that captures this,” he said. “There was nothing that captured everything.”
The book is titled “To Sell or Not to Sell … Employer Retirement Plans: The Financial Advisor’s Roadmap to a Successful Retirement Plans Practice” (Kaplan Publishing, 2007).
Mr. Foster and Mr. Thompson began writing the book several years ago but delayed its publication until after the Pension Protection Act of 2006 was passed.
The book focuses on “solution-based selling,” which Mr. Thompson thinks is critical in the retirement business.
“It’s about solving problems, not selling product,” he said.
Many advisers also avoid selling retirement plans, because they think that the sales cycle is too long, said Mr. Thompson. While that may have been true 10 years ago, when the average sales cycle was about 12 months, today most retirement plans are sold within 90 days, he said.
In the book, Mr. Thompson and Mr. Foster caution advisers against selling corporate retirement plans to just anybody.
“Some financial professionals chase anyone who breathes and is willing to talk to them,” they write. “This is a poor use of your time.”
Retirement plans can provide more stability and a recurring revenue stream, Mr. Thompson said.
The book is endorsed by Ted Benna, creator of the first 401(k) plan, in the early 1980s, and chief operating officer of Malvern Benefits Corp. of Williamsport, Pa., as well as Fred Reish, managing director of Reish Luftman Reicher & Cohen, a law firm in Los Angeles.
The Hartford offers retirement plans to small to midsize companies and had $25 billion in assets under management as of Dec. 31.