Seeking a serious relationship? – Meet our Investment Advisor Client Associate!

When you're setting up retirement accounts for your employees with a wealth management firm, the relationships you build are going to be long term. That's why the courteousness, personal attention, knowledge, and experience of your advisors and their staff are of the utmost importance. Correct Capital's team understands your needs as an employer, and will work with you to develop a great plan to retain and incentivize your best employees.

Financial advisor and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Colin Day continues his recent series of videos and podcasts getting to know the people who help Correct Capital and our clients thrive. He recently sat down with Alexia Keil, who works closely with employers to implement great retirement programs for their employees.

For recent investment news and our take on the current market, retirement planning, and investment, listen to our Podcast Capital Conversations or view our recent blog posts here.

Below is the transcript of our most recent Capital Conversation podcast episode, “Seeking a serious relationship? - Meet our Investment Advisor Client Associate!”

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Seeking a serious relationship? - Meet our Investment Advisor Client Associate!

Colin Day: Welcome everyone to another edition of Capital Conversations. I'm Colin Day, Financial Advisor with Correct Capital Wealth Management. And with me today is Alexia Keil. Alexia, thanks for joining us today.

Today, we’re going to have another one of our series videos – or if you're listening to this via audio, podcasts – where we meet another member of the team. And slowly, we're gonna get through everybody I think. And today, Alexia is the victim… I mean, the opportunistic individual who gets to sit next to me. So Alexia, why don't you tell me a little bit about what you do here at Correct Capital?

Alexia Keil: Well, I am the Retirement Plan Relationship Manager. I do a little bit, here and there, on the Wealth Services side, but mainly focus on retirement plans. And that will be my full focus in the very near future. I assist in any way I can, mainly with the plan sponsor servicing plan design, just keeping everyone happy.

Colin Day: Which is a tough, but a very doable job, I would say, in this office. We are fairly amicable people to work with. I mean, you get to sit in a cubicle. You have to be friends, right? You have the PAK back there; I don't think we've actually talked about the PAK on these videos.

So the PAK, if you're not familiar, is Pintip, Alexia and Kennedy. The PAK. They sit in our back room, in the cubicles, and they get annoyed by us, unfortunately, running the fridge or running the microwave a couple times a day. They deal with all of our fun food smells. That's why we have a very strict, no fish policy. Tell me a little bit about your financial services journey, because you've been here with Correct Capital for a little bit over a year now, correct?

Alexia Keil: Absolutely. I started with a local firm here in St. Louis as an assistant to the training manager. So I learned a lot. I was there for about three years and then just one day I woke up and decided I wanted to move to Chicago. Why not? Who doesn't?

Colin Day: It's a very St Louis thing to do.

Alexia Keil: It really is. But, everybody seems to come back for some reason. And, in 2002, why wouldn't you just want to pick up and move to Chicago? Without a job. So, I went and talked to the owner of the firm and then he said you should look at our broker dealer and see if they have any positions available. And they just so happened to have a position in retirement services.

Now keep in mind that I was licensed at the time, but I was the assistant. So I didn't do a lot with retirement plans. The only person I knew at the broker dealer in Retirement Services was the Head of Retirement Services. I picked up the phone and called him. I think he was so shocked that I actually called him and asked him if I could interview for that job, that they pretty much hired me on the spot. So, that's how I started in Retirement Services. They were very shorthanded at that time in that office, so I was kind of just thrown in. So I was out doing participant meetings, meeting with plan sponsors. Let's just say that maybe a couple mistakes might have been made along the way, but it was a great learning experience. And that's how I ended up from there working for another record keeper. I was a record keeper with the broker dealer working for another large record keeper for a long time. And then… Here I am.

Colin Day: So a couple definitions just for some folks that may not be following along with some of our 401k lingo. A record keeper is the financial institution that holds onto your assets. So that could be Fidelity, or Principal, or Voya, or any of the big players out in that particular space. When we say plan sponsors that's referring to the plan representatives at your company that offers the plan. Participants are someone, maybe like yourself, that actually is a member of the 401k contributing money out of your paycheck. So when it comes to Alexia's role as a relationship manager, her job really is kind of baked into the title – relationships.

If you were to define what interests you about this position, or what gets you up and excited to work on our retirement plan business, which not many financial advisors have a book of business considerable enough to warrant having an Alexia Keil on our team, what is it that interests you about working in retirement plans?

Alexia Keil: I love building relationships with the clients. And I mean at the employer level, so the plan-sponsor level, but also getting to know some of the employees over time. But that is what drew me in – building the relationships, getting to know about all these different businesses and what they do.

I once had a company that manufactured boots. And it was just really neat to see. Because somebody has to do it, right? But you don't realize what transpires to get to a boot. I mean, that’s just one example of many, but that is definitely what I really love about it. I'm able to help them and build relationships at the same time.

Colin Day: From my point of view, as an advisor on our retirement plans, I focus more on the participant services side. So education, working with individuals one on one, whereas Alexia gets to focus much more on the plan level details. So thinking about: Maybe we're going to pursue a new retirement plan option, or we're trying to think through, “How do we use our 401k plan as a retention tool or to be a valuable member of the benefits that we're offering to the employees of an employer?”

Let's think about: What are some opportunities that exist right now within the retirement plan space? We're talking to you all in the fall of 2022 or in the fall in general, heading in towards the end of the year, heading towards eventually, resetting the calendar to another calendar year. What are some things that plan sponsors or participants might be thinking about right now when they think about their retirement plans at work?

Alexia Keil: On the plan sponsor side, this is a great opportunity to look at their plan design and to make changes. Now is the time to look at possibly making changes, if you would like, to the plan design. It’s a good time to look at adding safe harbor, increasing your match, or auto enroll. Now is the time that we really should be evaluating that. Also, looking at if it's time to look at or shop for new record keepers. You should be doing that occasionally anyway, fiduciary-responsibility wise. For participants, I mean ongoing, every quarter, think about looking at your statement, making sure that you're still happy with where you are, or increasing your contribution. It's always a good time, the first of the year. A lot of people tend to make that move to once a year, to use the first of the year as a great reminder.

Colin Day: Perfect. Well, thanks so much for joining us, Alexia. Appreciate your time. Until next time. We'll see you soon. Thank you.

The opinions expressed in this program are for general informational purposes only, and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or on any specific security. It is only intended to provide education about the financial industry. To determine which investments may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing. As always please remember investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital; please seek advice from a licensed professional.

Correct Capital Wealth Management is a registered investment adviser. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Correct Capital Wealth Management and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. No advice may be rendered by Correct Capital Wealth Management unless a client service agreement is in place.

Capital Conversations by Correct Capital Wealth Management

At Correct Capital, we're lucky to have a great team that's dedicated to positive client outcomes and helping people and businesses secure their financial future. As a fiduciary, our only legal and ethical concern is doing we believe is in your best interest. If you're looking for 401(k) services for your business, or have any wealth management needs, call Correct Capital at 314-930-401K or contact us online.