“You Control Your Destiny” With Tom Zgainer, CEO and Founder of AB401k

All throughout my youth, my father would constantly say, “You control your destiny, you control your destiny.” I just did not get for a long time what the heck he was talking about. He was not a highly educated man, and never read any self-help book, that’s for sure. But he certainly had a PhD in common sense, and had a way of getting straight to the point. This was his way of saying my outcomes in life would be a result of my choices. I still find myself saying that phrase to myself daily. “You Control Your Destiny.” It is a constant reminder for me, and helps me to visualize outcomes both personally and professionally during the decision-making process.

I had the pleasure to interview Tom Zgainer, CEO and Founder America’s Best 401k

Thank you so much for doing this with us! What is your “backstory”?

I started working in the retirement plan industry in 2002, and over the next 10 years became fed up with the financial services industry treating 401k plans like their own cash cow, robbing the financial resources of now 80 million Americans for whom a 401k is the primary savings vehicle for life after active work. And everyone accepted that was just the way it had to be.

So I set out to create a new model, similar to Netflix rendering Blockbuster obsolete, or ride-sharing companies like Lyft debunking a 100-year-old model whereby the only way to get a ride was from a taxi. So we set out to go toe to toe with billion-dollar companies and create a solution that recognizes there are real people socking away their hard-earned money into their 401k, and rescue their retirement savings from the archaic Goliaths of the industry.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you…