How Being a 401k Expert Could Hurt the Greater Good

The retirement industry is one of many intricate, complicated, and technical industries that require a great deal of training. But is a focus on expertise hurting our ability to do our job?

The industry that is intended to provide retirement programs to companies has a grander vision, if we can hold on to it, to get tools like the 401k into the hands of as many people as possible. Coverage for all.

A colleague and I discussed with great scrutiny the merits of the reading and listening to industry related things, focusing on the needs of the industry, the changes in legislation, the merger wars, and the race against competitors. We wrestled on the speculation that it could be distracting our industry from the vision of coverage for all; simultaneously, there is great need for elite expertise because it is far too easy to make devastating mistakes. From operational and administrative teams to the software development that supports our providers, the expertise is needed. Or is it?

Reasons experts are coveted:

1. People are more likely to listen to experts
2. People are more likely to trust an expert
3. Most people want to work with experts (or work for them)
4. Experts can predict trends
5. Experts have deeper understanding and can add insights so that the rest of the world doesn’t have to hold it in their brain space

I was recently at an industry conference where pending legislation was being discussed. Though not unusual, this day it really stunned me how quickly several Record-Keepers spoke against the issue on the grounds of it being an “administrative nightmare.” One of the legislative items on the table seemed to me at a glance an opportunity to help slow financial abusers. I raised the thought to the floor and I was shocked at how quickly the idea was dismissed. I did not necessarily believe the half formed idea was an excellent angle, but there seemed no one in the room willing to pull, stretch and toss around concepts. The audience was binary, “I agree with the policy” or “I disagree with the policy.” The heavy weight that settled into the pit of my stomach was the realization that the incredible lack of growth mindset was deep, wide spread and currently left unchallenged in this industry.

The heavy weight that settled into the pit of my stomach was the realization that the incredible lack of growth-mindset was deep, wide spread and currently left unchallenged...

As we hone our craft, as we raise our new retirement specialists and encourage the acquiring of credentials it seems more important than ever to encourage our peers and our mentees to, at the very minimum, grow personally. If we give attention to our hobbies, our relationships and our dreams we are allowing our brains to think on a different plain. Getting outside of our area of expertise should be encouraged and praised. When we read, for example, the newest in bio tech, psychology, social trends and a sport we don’t play, we can gain new language and new ideas injected into our every day minds because we are then practiced in thinking in different verticals. You’ll never know when learning to simmer your first beef bourguignon could inspire a new ingenuity on your saas product’s user interface.

Experts are absolutely needed because we need stronger think tanks and accountability. So while we need experts to continue growing in their expertise, we need to evolve the duty of “expert” and part of the catalyst for the evolution is for experts to take in more of the world around us and be willing to stretch, to listen, to test. The world is begging of experts to have a stronger pulse on the needs of the people, craving timely expert insights for the fore-front concerns. In a world of unlimited voices, we all will search for the one that can hear the issues we deeply feel.