You can be a great financial advisor and have a terrific way of communicating with plan sponsor clients, but that doesn’t mean you can effectively communicate with plan participants.

Quite honestly, most advisors have a tough time dealing with it and I think the biggest problem is making a connection with them because most advisors don’t talk to plan participants on a level they can understand.  It’s a problem because increased participation by plan participants on the salary deferral component of the plan is a great metric to show plan sponsors that advisors are doing their job well.

One great way is to liven up the enrollment meetings because most are alike, they’re as exciting as my Secured Transactions class in law school.  Introduce trivia contests and award prizes to plan participants who engage in the enrollment meeting. Doing something that is unique will be memorable for plan participants and get them more engaged.