Addressing Management of Workplace Retirement Accounts: Q&A with Absolute Capital’s Brenden Gebben 

Advisors currently face a significant challenge in managing their clients’ workplace retirement accounts, such as 401(k), 403(b), and 457 plans. These accounts often represent some of the largest investments clients hold. Historically, advisors have not been able to manage these accounts directly.  

This lack of control restricts their ability to offer personalized guidance or implement timely changes, which can be a significant disadvantage compared to the hands-on management they provide for other investments, according to Brenden Gebben, CEO of Absolute Capital Management—a turnkey asset management platform (TAMP) provider specializing in comprehensive 401(k) management solutions for advisors across the country. 

Gebben recently shared with Connect why many advisors remain unaware of their ability to directly manage workplace retirement accounts. He highlighted how Absolute Capital’s TAMP platform empowers advisors to do so and shared his insights on the future of workplace retirement management, among other topics. 

CM: Can you start by telling us a bit about Absolute Capital and what sets it apart in the wealth management space?  

BG: We are a registered investment advisor supporting fellow RIAs with solutions to help them address their clients’ wealth management needs. 

One of the biggest challenges right now for advisors is how to tackle the management of workplace retirement accounts – that is, their clients’ individual 401(k), 403(b) and 457 accounts. These accounts are often among the clients’ largest investment accounts but have traditionally fallen outside of the advisor’s ability to manage, leaving clients’ desire for help on these accounts unmet. 

We’ve designed a pioneering fintech platform, the Workplace Investment Navigator (WIN), for advisors to easily and comprehensively manage their clients’ 401(k), 403(b) and 457 accounts, just as they would manage other investment accounts for their clients. This platform is unique in that, within this one tool, advisors can build risk-aligned portfolios for their clients beyond each accounts’ core menu while enjoying automated trading and billing functions that add transparency and scalability… all without reliance on shared client credentials and passwords. 

For advisors who have previously stayed away from the management of these accounts, or for advisors using client credentials to gain ghost access, using our third-party platform means the advisor can manage more types of accounts for their clients efficiently and at scale. 

CM: Why do you think so many advisors aren’t aware they can manage workplace retirement accounts directly?  

BG: Traditionally, individual workplace retirement accounts were generalized as an account type outside the purview of an advisor’s professional management. Often times, advisors assume they would have to be the advisor for the entire plan to help clients with their individual accounts. 

What many advisors simply don’t realize is that many plans are designed to accommodate professional management on the individual account level. It takes some expertise to understand these plan nuances, but that’s the work we’ve already done and readily share with advisors to get them started managing assets in this space. 

CM: How does Absolute Capital’s TAMP make this possible? What’s the secret sauce?  

BG: It is the synthesis of the many elements that go into the professional management of in-plan accounts that sets the WIN platform apart. The platform was born through years of experience across custodians, recordkeepers and plans translated into technology that gives advisors a complete and scalable means to add their professional management to their clients’ accounts. They get portfolio management, automated trading and transparent direct billing all within one platform.     

CM: What kind of impact does this have for advisors and their clients?  

BG: It can be huge. Oftentimes, a clients’ retirement account (401(k), 403b), 457) is their largest asset. And, in most cases, this account sits outside the overall financial plan and may have allocations that don’t match the client’s risk level. The WIN platform brings this key asset into the financial plan, enabling the advisor to build a risk-aligned portfolio beyond the account’s core menu and providing ongoing data on this important asset.  

And, for an advisor’s practice, this can be a significant area of untapped growth right there within their current book of business. By having a means to offer professional account management for their clients’ 401(k), 403(b) and 457 accounts, they expand their service model and their AUM. Common wisdom was that in-plan workplace assets were not available until the time of a rollover, yet the question we often pose to them is: “Why wait for the rollover?” 

CM: Compliance is obviously a big deal here. How does Absolute Capital ensure everything stays on the right side of regulators?  

BG: Yes, compliance is paramount, both for us and for the advisors we serve. To this end, the WIN platform is specifically architected to follow the unique intricacies of plan design and recordkeeping requirements in adding professional management to these accounts. We have taken great care over years of analysis to understand and navigate these parameters. 

Further, our platform does not rely on client credentials or shared passwords. Advisors using our WIN platform get a regulated advisory partner in us – one held to the same compliance rules they are – an important differentiator in our approach to this space. 

CM: How does this capability distinguish Absolute Capital from competitors in the wealthtech space?  

BG: The platform solution we’ve developed for 401(k) management is unmatched in this space. We stand alone in offering advisors an efficient means to add their management directly onto clients’ accounts – while accessing expanded models and managers to build risk-aligned portfolios beyond the account’s core menu with automated trading and transparent direct billing. 

Other technology providers in the space focus solely on giving advisors a means of “account access” that requires clients to share private account login information with their advisor. In addition to the inherent password security concerns, this method does not offer any additional value through capabilities such as expanded investment options, risk-aligned modeling, automated trading or direct billing to help the advisor compliantly and efficiently manage these assets.  

CM: Looking ahead, what’s the future for workplace retirement management?  

BG: It’s wide open. What we know is clients want help managing their 401(k), 403(b) and 457 accounts. And account balances keep growing. For advisors, we believe this is a huge untapped source of AUM – trillions of dollars in workplace investment assets eligible for management. The overall market has barely been scratched so it represents a huge opportunity to incorporate this cornerstone asset into each client’s overall financial plan while growing the advisor’s practice.