Oneida County hotels see fewer than four in 10 rooms occupied in November, a 30 percent drop in occupancy

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UTICA, N.Y. — Oneida County hotels posted an occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) of 37 percent in November, down 29.7 percent from a year prior, according to STR, a Tennessee–based hotel market data and analytics company. It was the biggest year-over-year decline in occupancy in the county since July as […]

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Sugar Blossom Cake Shop: “The Sweet Smell of Success”

Business Mentors, Small Business, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

If there were ever two young entrepreneurs that would make the sun shine from pure desire, I think I may have met them. The lyric from the song “Higher Love” epitomizes Kaleigh Ligoci and Lauren Scarpelli. On Thursday, Dec. 3, the Greater Liverpool Chamber of Commerce cut the ribbon and officially welcomed Ligoci, Scarpelli, and their Sugar

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On Thursday, Dec. 3, the Greater Liverpool Chamber of Commerce cut the ribbon and officially welcomed Ligoci, Scarpelli, and their Sugar Blossom Cake Shop to the village of Liverpool. Their glass dessert cases on the first floor of the bakery are filled with colorful macaroons, cupcakes, cookies, bars, brownies, and gluten-free pastries. Specialty coffee is served by the cup or purchased by the bag. The second floor is a spacious loft with high ceilings and a lot of natural light. It’s available for taste testing and custom consultations for weddings and special events.

Kaleigh and Lauren both have energetic, bubbly, and passionate personalities, but it would take more than those qualities to move their decision to open their own bakery from point A to point B. Despite their young age, they both have what it takes to make their business a successful endeavor as they have complemented their educations with hands-on practical experience in the baking industry. Ligoci studied baking production and management at Alfred State College. Scarpelli studied baking and pastry arts at Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondacks. Ligoci worked for several local entities including Mario’s Bakery in North Syracuse, the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, and the Half Moon Bakery & Bistro in Jamesville, which is where she met Scarpelli.

Ligoci is the cake creator for the bakery. She has an impressive following on social media as “The Little Cake Artist” and is well known throughout the Central New York area. Scarpelli is the head baker at Sugar Blossom and is regarded as an outstanding scratch-baker. When you meet them, it’s apparent that that the chemistry between the two is tremendous, which is what led them to pursue a dream of building and growing something of their own. Both knew they had to combine their chemistry and passion with an executable plan.

Henry Ford once said, “Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait. The grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas.” As many entrepreneurs know, starting a new business can be intimidating but starting a new business during the COVID-19 pandemic can be downright frightening — whether you have a plan and enthusiasm or not.

Lauren’s and Kaleigh’s dream began back in November 2019. Patience and persistence would be imperative for them given the business plan and the environment that we have all been trying to navigate through. Many of you have heard the metaphor “success is an iceberg”. What that means is that people only see the tip of the iceberg (success) but the bulk of the iceberg is beneath the surface and goes completely unseen. The bulk represents planning, hard work, focus, learning, patience, and persistence that is required to create a successful business.

Following their initial business meeting with the Onondaga Small Business Development Center (SBDC), this dynamic duo went to work. With the help of the Onondaga SBDC, they researched the industry, created a business plan, selected an accountant and an attorney, worked with a real-estate agent to secure a location and formulated financial projections, prior to securing an SBA-backed loan. They were “professionally persistent” at chipping away at the variety of legal, financial, and logistical steps that needed to be accomplished prior to selling one item. As they put it, “Mark [Pitonzo] and the Onondaga SBDC guided us through the entire process. We felt confident speaking with and doing business with Mark. He helped set us up for success and we’re so appreciative that we were able take advantage of this great service!”

Lauren and Kaleigh have been very successful utilizing social media to create awareness of their products and services through creation of a web site and an Instagram page. Additionally, joining the Greater Liverpool Chamber of Commerce has helped to create that additional geographic “buzz.” So much so that it’s led to one of the early challenges of their business — meeting the demand for their gastronomical delights. Sugar Blossom has enough diversification through its seasonal pastries, wedding cakes, and ability to accommodate special events that the business will be well-positioned for the future. Ultimately, the success of any bakery hinges on the quality of its products. Creating a niche for their bakery through stunning cakes and unusual pastries will set Ligoci and Scarpelli apart and help them to build a loyal customer base.

The village of Liverpool has fully embraced the bakery and its delectable baked goods. The Sugar Blossom Cake Shop is located at 304 Tulip St. in Liverpool. It’s open Wednesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. You can find the bakery on the web at www.sugarblossomcakeshop.com or follow it on Instagram, where it has close to 2,500 followers.

Advisor’s Business Tip: Every new business needs a plan to succeed. Even if you’re not in need of external funding, it helps you define your business, prioritize your goals, identify your target customer base, understand who you’re competing against, determine ways in which you’ll generate revenue, estimate expenses, and navigate through operational “speed bumps.”

Mark Pitonzo is a business advisor at the Onondaga Small Business Development Center. Contact him at m.j.pitonzo2@sunyocc.edu

MMRI researchers to use AHA funding for autism study

Health Care, Regional News, Subscriber Only

UTICA, N.Y. — Researchers at the Masonic Medical Research Institute (MMRI) in Utica are beginning a study examining if there is a link between cardiac abnormalities and autism. The American Heart Association (AHA) chose MMRI for the nearly $300,000 Transformational Project Award, per a news release. Maria Kontaridis, MMRI executive director, and Gordon Moe, professor

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UTICA, N.Y. — Researchers at the Masonic Medical Research Institute (MMRI) in Utica are beginning a study examining if there is a link between cardiac abnormalities and autism.

The American Heart Association (AHA) chose MMRI for the nearly $300,000 Transformational Project Award, per a news release.

Maria Kontaridis, MMRI executive director, and Gordon Moe, professor of biomedical research and translational medicine at MMRI, will be working on the study for the next three years.

“It’s our honor to award this grant to Dr. Kontaridis,” Steve Gassner, chair of the board of directors of the AHA in the Mohawk Valley, said. “We know that 1 in 100 children is born with a heart defect, and some of those children have been our Red Cap Ambassadors. Like heart disease, autism affects the whole family. We look forward to hearing from Drs. Kontaridis and Ercan-Sencicek in the coming years as progress continues on this exciting and ground-breaking work.”

Kontaridis and her co-investigator, Gulhan Ercan-Sencicek, an instructor at MMRI, began their project on Jan.1. Titled “The role of PTPN11 mutations in autism and heart pathogenesis,” it seeks to understand how mutations in the same gene differentially affect the normal processes of heart and brain development.

“We think there are genes that have dual functionality in development, the abnormal regulation of which can cause neurocognitive and cardiac anomalies,” Kontaridis said. “Genes regulate signaling relays within a cell that tell that cell what to do, whether it be to grow, divide, or die. Here, we are looking at the effects of a specific gene, which, when mutated, alters the relay process, thereby leading to the development of growth defects, autism, and cardiac abnormalities.”

Kontaridis and Ercan-Sencicek will look at disease-causing changes in the PTPN11 gene, a nodal gene involved in critical signaling processes that regulate normal growth and differentiation of cells in multiple tissues, including brain and heart.

“We have identified two novel mutations that we think link autism with heart abnormalities in human patients,” Ercan-Sencicek said. “To understand the role of these mutations, we will reprogram somatic cells obtained from patients with these unique mutations and convert them into inducible pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), cells that have the ability to differentiate into any tissue type of interest.”

CNY jobless rates remain higher than a year ago amid significant job losses

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Subscriber Only

Unemployment rates in the Syracuse, Utica–Rome, Binghamton, and Elmira regions were mostly below 6 percent in November 2020 but remained higher compared to a year ago amid the continuing negative economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and government restrictions on business activity. Bucking the trend, the jobless rate in the Watertown–Fort Drum area was lower this past

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Bucking the trend, the jobless rate in the Watertown–Fort Drum area was lower this past November than in November 2019.

The figures are part of the latest New York State Department of Labor data released Dec. 22.

On the job-growth side, the Syracuse region lost jobs in five-digit figures between November 2019 and this past November. The Utica–Rome, Binghamton, Watertown–Fort Drum, Ithaca, and Elmira areas lost jobs in four-digit figures in the same period.

That’s according to the latest monthly employment report that the New York State Department of Labor issued Dec. 17.

Regional unemployment rates

The jobless rate in the Syracuse area was 5.6 percent in November, up from 4 percent in November 2019.

The Utica–Rome region’s jobless rate was 5.6 percent, up from 4.1 percent a year earlier; the Watertown–Fort Drum area’s number fell to 5.3 percent in November from 5.9 percent a year ago; the Binghamton region’s rate hit 5.4 percent, up from the 4.2 percent; the Ithaca area came in at 4.0 percent, up from 3.3 percent; and the unemployment rate in the Elmira region was 6.1 percent in November, up from 3.9 percent in the same month a year ago.

The local-unemployment data isn’t seasonally adjusted, meaning the figures don’t reflect seasonal influences such as holiday hires.

The unemployment rates are calculated following procedures prescribed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state Labor Department said.

State unemployment rate

New York state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 8.4 percent in November 2020, down from 9.2 percent in October, but up sharply from 3.9 percent in November 2019.

The 8.4 percent unemployment rate was higher than the U.S. jobless rate of 6.7 percent in November.

The federal government calculates New York’s unemployment rate partly based upon the results of a monthly telephone survey of 3,100 state households that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics conducts.

November jobs data

The Syracuse region lost more than 33,000 jobs in the past year, a decline of 10.2 percent.

The Utica–Rome metro area lost more than 9,000 jobs, a drop of about 7 percent; the Watertown–Fort Drum region shed nearly 4,000 jobs, a decrease of 9 percent; the Binghamton area lost 6,600 jobs, a slippage of about 6 percent; the Ithaca region shed nearly 3,000 jobs, a decline of 4 percent; and the Elmira area lost nearly 3,000 jobs, a drop of about 8 percent.

New York state as a whole lost more than 975,000 jobs, a decrease of 10 percent, in that 12-month period. The state economy gained more than 29,000 jobs, or a 0.3 percent increase, between October and November, the labor department said.

Saab DeWitt plant wins $18 million modification to Navy radar-system contract

Manufacturing & Engineering, Subscriber Only

DeWITT, N.Y. — Saab, Inc.’s DeWitt operation has been awarded a nearly $18.2 million modification to a previously awarded contract from the U.S. Navy. The firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee adjustment to this pact will exercise options for production and engineering support of Multi-Mode Radar (MMR) systems. Under this contract, Saab manufactures, inspects, tests, and delivers MMR

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VIEWPOINT: COVID-19 Business-Succession Planning

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In just [10] months, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed nearly everything — how we work, play, teach, shop, and travel. And its full impact is still not known, as the virus continues to claim lives and livelihoods. Amid so much tumult and uncertainty, it’s essential for business owners to review and update their business-succession plans. That’s especially since today’s economic and regulatory climate creates a number of tax advantages for planning either a sale or transfer of assets. Here are five:

1. Reduced asset values and historically low interest rates. Because of the continuing financial crisis, business valuations are low. In addition, the Federal Reserve has cut the federal-funds rate (the rate that banks charge each other for short-term loans) to near zero. Together, these conditions combine to allow for the ability to participate in cost-effective transfers of business interests.

2. Other reduced interest rates. The reduction in interest rates, such as the IRS Section 7520 Rate and the Applicable Federal Rates (AFR), directly affects the taxability of transferring wealth and business interests.

IRS Section 7520 rates are used to determine the gift tax value of certain transfers, including transfers to certain trusts like GRATs (Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts) and CLATs (Charitable Lead Annuity Trusts). The lower Section 7520 rates allow individuals to make larger gifts to their beneficiaries with less gift-tax consequences.

The AFRs (Applicable Federal Rates) are used to determine interest charged on loans and promissory notes.

3. The federal estate and gift-tax exemption and annual exclusion amounts remain at an all-time high. In 2020, the federal estate and gift-tax lifetime exemption is $11,580,000 per individual, and the annual exclusion for gifts is $15,000 per recipient per year. However, the federal estate and gift-tax lifetime exemption is scheduled to be reduced by almost half in 2026 and could be reduced even sooner during the Biden administration. The likelihood of such reduction in the next couple years may largely depend on the outcome of the upcoming Senate runoff elections in Georgia.

4. Motivated buyers. For those considering selling their business, today’s low interest rates provide incentive for buyers, who might be encouraged to borrow money to make a purchase.

5. Transfer to family. The decreased value of a business allows for transfers to family members while using less of the estate and gift-exclusion amounts.

This guidance is designed to provide a brief general overview of business-succession strategies.

Samantha E. Grossmann is an associate attorney at Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC in Syracuse, in the firm’s Trust and Estate practice area. Contact her at sgrossmann@bsk.com. This Viewpoint is drawn from the law firm’s website.

New York’s closed & pending home sales jump in November

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Subscriber Only

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York realtors sold 13,276 previously-owned homes in November, up 21 percent from 10,961 homes sold in November 2019, as the housing market continued to show strength amid a limited inventory of homes. The growth of closed sales is also likely to continue as pending sales in November climbed more than 32

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The growth of closed sales is also likely to continue as pending sales in November climbed more than 32 percent.

That’s according to the New York State Association of Realtors (NYSAR)’s November housing-market report issued on Dec. 19.

“Closed sales continued to rise considerably year-to-year in the Empire State in November,” NYSAR said to open its housing-market report.

Sales data

Pending home sales totaled 12,405 in November, up 32.3 percent from 9,374 pending sales in the same month in 2019, according to the NYSAR data.

The November 2020 statewide median sales price was $335,000, up nearly 22 percent from the November 2019 median sales price of $274,900.

The months’ supply of homes for sale at the end of November stood at 3.9 months, down about 20 percent compared to a year ago, per NYSAR’s report. It was at 5.3 months at the end of November 2019.

A 6-month to 6.5-month supply is considered to be a balanced market, the association says.

The number of homes for sale totaled 48,054 in November, a decrease of about 21 percent compared to November 2019.

Central New York data

Realtors in Onondaga County sold 459 previously owned homes in November, up less than 1 percent from the 457 sold in the same month in 2019. The median sales price rose about 15 percent to more than $175,000, up from over $152,000 a year ago, according to the NYSAR report.

NYSAR also reports that realtors sold 189 homes in Oneida County in November, up about 10 percent from the 172 sold during November 2019. The median sales price increased about 20 percent to $156,000 from more than $130,000 a year before.

Realtors in Broome County sold 158 existing homes in November, up about 14 percent from 139 a year prior, according to the NYSAR report. The median sales price rose about 18 percent to nearly $140,000 from more than $118,000 in November 2019.

In Jefferson County, realtors closed on 129 homes in November, up about 11 percent from 116 a year ago, and the median sales price of $175,000 was up about 10 percent from nearly $160,000 a year earlier, according to the NYSAR data.

All home-sales data is compiled from multiple-listing services in New York state and it includes townhomes and condominiums in addition to existing single-family homes, according to NYSAR.

Health-benefit costs rose 3.4% in 2020 for firms with 50-plus employees

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Health Care, Insurance & Financial Services, Subscriber Only

Total health-benefit costs rose 3.4 percent, on average, in 2020, reaching $13,674 per employee among all U.S. employer health-plan sponsors with 50 or more employees. That’s according to the annual Mercer “National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans 2020,” which the firm released Dec. 8. The 3.4 percent figure represents “the lowest annual health-cost increase in over two

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Total health-benefit costs rose 3.4 percent, on average, in 2020, reaching $13,674 per employee among all U.S. employer health-plan sponsors with 50 or more employees.

That’s according to the annual Mercer “National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans 2020,” which the firm released Dec. 8.

The 3.4 percent figure represents “the lowest annual health-cost increase in over two decades,” per an infographic from Mercer. Employers also demonstrated “concern” about workforce behavioral health as the pandemic continues to disrupt lives and business.

Mercer conducted its “flagship survey” of 1,812 U.S. employers between July and September 2020.

Early results from that same survey indicated the nation’s employers expect “moderate” health-benefit cost growth for 2021 of 4.4 percent, on average, compared to 2020. Mercer had announced the early findings Oct. 1.

The increase, based on 1,113 employer responses since early July, is “largely in line” with the average annual-cost growth over the past six years.

Large employers — those with 500 or more employees — reported a cost increase of just 1.9 percent, their lowest increase since 1997, as plan members avoided health-care facilities due to the pandemic, per the Dec. 8 information.

Large employers typically self-fund their plans, which means they may see costs fall as utilization falls, unlike fully insured employers that pay a fixed premium. Survey results suggest that many large employers plan to use money saved in 2020 to invest in programs to “support and engage” employees in 2021.

“The need to minimize exposure to the virus and ease the strain on overloaded health facilities caused many people to forgo care this past year, which translated to slower cost growth in 2020. Heading into 2021, that’s allowed employers to avoid cost-management tactics like shifting cost to employees,” Tracy Watts, a senior consultant at Mercer, said. “Instead, we’re seeing many focus on supporting employees with additional resources to help keep them engaged, productive, and healthy during these tough times.”

Amid concerns that workers are not getting the support they need, employers are making behavioral health a “top priority” in 2021, providing manager training and adding new resources. Child-care issues remain a “tough problem,” per the Mercer infographic.

The survey also found that the top five well-being priorities for 2021 include behavioral health (75 percent); diabetes (49 percent); financial well-being (48 percent); nutrition and weight management (40 percent); and physical activity (39 percent).

Telemedicine

Telemedicine-utilization rates are “climbing,” according to the Mercer data, and employers are generally pleased with how their programs are performing. Many have waived copayments to encourage use, and most foresee a larger role for all forms of virtual care going forward.

The survey found the average percentage of eligible members (including family members) using the service at least once during the plan year was 14 percent during the first half of 2020. That figure is up from 9 percent for all of 2019 and 2018; up from 8 percent in 2017; and up from 7 percent in 2016.

The survey also found that most employers were satisfied with the performance of their telemedicine vendor during the pandemic. The data indicates that 25 percent were very satisfied; 48 percent were satisfied; 2 percent were not very satisfied; and 24 percent didn’t have enough feedback to say.

The Mercer survey also found that 80 percent of employers anticipate a larger role for virtual care in general in their health programs in the future, per the infographic.

SUNY provost appointed acting president of SUNY Poly

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Health Care, Subscriber Only

MARCY, N.Y. — SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly) begins the new year with new leadership. The SUNY board of trustees on Dec. 29 appointed SUNY Provost Tod Laursen as SUNY Poly’s acting president. His appointment is effective immediately. A search for a permanent SUNY Poly president will begin “shortly,” SUNY said in a news release.

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MARCY, N.Y. — SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly) begins the new year with new leadership.

The SUNY board of trustees on Dec. 29 appointed SUNY Provost Tod Laursen as SUNY Poly’s acting president. His appointment is effective immediately. A search for a permanent SUNY Poly president will begin “shortly,” SUNY said in a news release.

Laursen assumes the duties previously held by Jinliu (Grace) Wang, who had been serving as interim president of SUNY Poly for more than two years. Wang stepped down from her position Nov. 30 to become executive VP at Ohio State University.

In her new role, Wang joins former SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson who became the 16th president of Ohio State University at the start of this academic year.

Laursen will work with SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras to ensure a smooth transition of his current responsibilities as senior vice chancellor and provost of SUNY system administration. Malatras has appointed Fatemeh (Shadi) Shahedipour-Sandvik as provost-in-charge, SUNY said.

Laursen has served as senior vice chancellor and provost since September 2018. He joined SUNY from Khalifa University (KU) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where he was the founding president and served as its leader since 2010.

Prior to becoming president of Khalifa University, Laursen was a member of the faculty of Duke University between 1992 and 2010, during which time he had appointments in civil engineering, biomedical engineering, and mechanical engineering.

He served as chair of Duke’s department of mechanical engineering and materials science from 2008 to 2010. He also served as senior associate dean for education in the Pratt School of Engineering from 2003 to 2008. In the latter capacity, he had oversight responsibility for all undergraduate and graduate engineering programs at Duke, SUNY said.

Laursen earned his Ph.D. and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in the same subject from Oregon State University. He specializes in computational mechanics, a subfield of engineering mechanics involving development of new computational algorithms and tools used by engineers to analyze mechanical and structural systems.

He has published more than 100 articles, book chapters, and abstracts, and has authored or co-edited two books. His particular focus is development of methods to analyze contact, impact, and frictional phenomena in highly nonlinear and complex systems.

Laursen is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the International Association of Computational Mechanics, and the U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics. Additionally, he has served on the scientific advisory committees of several of the “most important” national and international congresses in computational mechanics, SUNY said.

VIEWPOINT: Managed Accounts in 401(k) Plans & the Choice they Offer Plan Advisers

Business Mentors, Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Insurance & Financial Services, Subscriber Only

In a recent PlanAdviser magazine article, it was reported that a participant in Nestlé’s 401(k) Savings Plan had filed a proposed class-action lawsuit. It alleged a breach of fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Frankly, by itself, an article like this wouldn’t have caught my attention. Participant lawsuits alleging fiduciary wrongdoing are so

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In a recent PlanAdviser magazine article, it was reported that a participant in Nestlé’s 401(k) Savings Plan had filed a proposed class-action lawsuit. It alleged a breach of fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

Frankly, by itself, an article like this wouldn’t have caught my attention. Participant lawsuits alleging fiduciary wrongdoing are so common now that I hardly notice anymore. But this one was different because among its allegations, it charged that the plan fiduciaries had allowed excess fees to be charged to the participants for the managed accounts. The article states that the participants in the plan were offered a managed-account service that was provided by Voya Retirement Advisors. The annual fees were 0.5 percent of assets up to $100,000, 0.4 percent on the next $150,000, and 0.25 percent on assets above $250,000.

Managed accounts have become an increasingly popular service for plan advisers to recommend to their clients. In general, they aim to solve the problem of plan participants lacking the knowledge to invest their retirement money appropriately. In that sense, they compete with target-date-funds (TDFs), robo-advisers, and educational tools such as asset-allocation models.

To my knowledge, there are few who doubt the need of participants of 401(k) and related defined-contribution plans for professional guidance to help select investments among the plan’s menu of options. As we all know, while 401(k) plans have grown parabolically since the mid-1980s, financial literacy in America hasn’t had the same level of growth.

The opportunity is so compelling that I have heard — and I bet you have, too — that some plan advisers are now earning more from managed-account fees charged directly to the participants than they are from the fees they charge for traditional plan services. That is because part of the fees charged by the managed-account service provider is shared with the plan adviser for “distributing” the service. This distribution role subsequently creates a conflict of interest for the adviser, who stands to gain financially from the plan fiduciaries authorizing its availability to its participants.

So, are managed accounts a valuable service that addresses a substantial need among plan participants, or are they an easy sell that plan advisers can use to rev up their income, or both?

The consumers of financial advice are simply seeking one thing when they engage with an adviser — to get honest, expert advice on what to do. And that should be the goal of the plan adviser when working with plan participants.

But unfortunately, that isn’t always how managed accounts are being pitched to plan advisers. Instead, they are presented as a way to increase our fees — to sell our managed-account service and make more money. It is meant to play to our selfishness. If we take the bait, it is a shortsighted mistake and will hurt our profession in the long run.

Plan advisers are a relatively new specialty, having our roots in the broader financial-advice industry. Our newness allows us the opportunity to break from that past and build something much better. But that requires us to take a fork in the road before we have built traditions, cultures, and reputations. Stay on the path built by the broader financial-advisory industry or exit now and take the path of increased reputation, respect, and even income.

Professionalism requires us to put the clients’ interests first, which means to improve their financial standing or decline the work. It requires competence, objectivity, and transparency. But financial advisers, by and large, have abandoned this route, and that is precisely why plan participants are skeptical to seek out the advice of their plan’s adviser. We have a fresh opportunity to choose the better route, and I believe we would be better off for it as would those we seek to serve.

This choice is played out in the evaluation of managed accounts. Plan advisers should be the objective scrutinizer, not the sales team. We are professionals, offering something of value to our clients. Let’s not allow ourselves to become the distribution arm for anyone — record keepers, mutual-fund companies, broker/dealers, or managed-account providers.

I’m not against managed accounts. But let them stand on their own and compete among other managed accounts and other products, like TDFs that are trying to solve the same problem.

Our job is to evaluate and advise. That is professional work, honest work, and valuable work. It’s also what our clients want from us. Let’s forgo a few bucks now so that it can compound into big bucks in the future.

Brian Allen (www.pension-consultants.com) is the author of “Rewarding Retirement: How Fiduciary Committees Can Elevate Workers, Companies, And Communities,” and founder/chairman of Pension Consultants, Inc., a fee-only plan adviser.

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