One of the business philosophies I learned while working for third party administrator is that it’s a lot easier to lose a client than to gain one. I know that first hand, seeing bad service that gets plan sponsors to fire you and going on sales meetings and how slow the sales process can be.

Building a retirement plan provider “empire” doesn’t happen overnight. You might have started that business at a small desk in an office that you might have rented or able to procure from a family member or business affiliate. It takes a lot of work to slowly build a strong provider practice just like it’s hard to build a new 401(k) plan’s assets into something a provider would look at.

While it’s great to admire your accomplishments in building your practice, you should ever lose sight that it’s far easier to lose your stature in the retirement plan business than it was to gain it. You should never strive away from the reason why you got in the business in the first place, providing good retirement plan services to plan sponsors at a reasonable fee. You should never get bogged down in the pettiness that gets plan sponsors so aggravated that they fire you.

You should never stray away from that important philosophy that the client is right as long as the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA.