About Us

Education

Transparency

Excellence

Your Plan Strategy Partners

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Plan Sponsor Roundtable was created to help group retirement plan sponsors make strategic, informed decisions about their plans, fiduciary responsibilities, and responsibilities to their employees.

Our roundtable events feature engaging and collaborative conversations and education with industry specialists, seasoned plan sponsors, and business leaders new to plan sponsorship and/or fiduciary training. By the end of a PSR program, you’ll have strengthened your understanding of your options and responsibilities as an employer and feel confident providing a quality retirement plan to your employees.

How it all began

The History of Plan Sponsor Roundtable

When our Founder, Joe Brummel, was fresh out of college with his first job, his mentor, Richard, provided him with some sage advice:

Start saving 15% in your 401(k) plan right away. You’ll need to do that over your working career to retire with enough money at a reasonable age. If you start saving that now, you can live off the other 85% of your paycheck and you won’t miss the difference – you just got out of college, and you’ve never made more money in your life!

Richard’s advice was so straightforward and sensible that Joe knew it was the right thing to do without using his economics’ degree and running calculations. He started saving 15% right away.

A few years later, having seen his 401k balance grow and seeking a career change, Joe made his way into the group retirement plan industry and started helping others in the same way Richard helped him – by providing people with straightforward and relatable financial advice that helps them act in their own best interest.

After many years of educating leaders of companies and their employees, plan by plan, Joe recognized a void of education for plan sponsors beyond the short amount of time spent in plan reviews and decided to offer a couple of lunch roundtable programs in 2012. The response was very positive and appreciative. There was clearly a demand for education from those in positions of authority over their group retirement plans, and there was virtually no place they could go to learn about the retirement plan industry and how to better run their plans.

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Joe also recognized there were profound advantages with this collaborative education forum versus education for plan sponsors in client review meetings:

  1. Surrounding plan sponsors with their peers from other organizations helped neutralize the often-strong influences and potentially detrimental biases that can be present within one plan’s retirement committee or decisionmaker group.
  2. The Roundtable provided a better environment to think deeper and connect dots to understand issues and solve problems.
  3. We could cover topics in different ways that are more effective with more people, especially with leaders from multiple organizations.
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Plan Sponsor Roundtable (PSR) currently includes two program formats, a full-day university class, “Foundational Fiduciary Training,” and a shorter lunch program with rotating topics. In 2022, PSR expanded from the Twin Cities in Minnesota to include St. Cloud, MN, and Sioux Falls, SD, and we added another experienced retirement plan advisor, Brandon Lawrence, as Associate Instructor.

Both Joe and Brandon continue to add to their expertise and experience as full-time retirement plan advisors at Strategic Retirement Partners (SRP), working with the leadership and employees of for-profit, non-profit, and governmental organizations. They bring their expertise and experiences to share at Roundtable programs and foster additional industry specialists and plan sponsors to do the same. Oh, and one more thing… you can be assured Joe and Brandon focus on delivering straightforward and sensible advice, just like Richard did.

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Our Mission

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Plan Sponsor Roundtable’s mission is to help improve the knowledge, decisions, and actions of group retirement plan sponsors through collaborative education with peers and industry specialists. This is in recognition of challenges plan sponsors have in meeting their fiduciary responsibilities, the influence employers have in helping employees with financial health, and the need to improve retirement plan outcomes for both employers and employees.
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Collaboration

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Knowledge

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Ethics / Integrity

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Helping Others

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Meet Our Team

Dedicated to your wellbeing

Joe Brummel

Founding Instructor

Joe and Brandon lead the education efforts of Plan Sponsor Roundtable. Their experience and knowledge stem from years of working as group retirement plan advisors, serving organizations, leadership, and their employees. From this, they recognized a demand for education that was not satisfied to help train those with responsibilities over their group retirement plans. Hence Plan Sponsor Roundtable was born!

Joe, Brandon, and the Upper Midwest team at Strategic Retirement Partners (SRP) have excelled in their industry education, experience, and earning important credentials:

• Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF®), Certified 401k Professional (C(k)P®), Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor (CPFA®), Retirement Income Certified Professional (RICP®), Chartered Mutual Fund Counselor (CMFC), and Chartered Retirement Plan Specialist (CRPS)

• CEFEX Certification for Fiduciary Excellence—this certification is only granted by CEFEX to firms that demonstrate adherence to fiduciary best practices

• Independent recognition, including 401kWire's "Top 300 Most Influential Defined Contribution Advisors in America”, Financial Times’ "Top 401 Retirement Plan Advisors", 401k Specialist Magazine’s Top Advisor by Participant Outcomes, and one of three finalists for PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year

Brandon Lawrence

Associate Instructor

Joe and Brandon lead the education efforts of Plan Sponsor Roundtable. Their experience and knowledge stem from years of working as group retirement plan advisors, serving organizations, leadership, and their employees. From this, they recognized a demand for education that was not satisfied to help train those with responsibilities over their group retirement plans. Hence Plan Sponsor Roundtable was born!

Joe, Brandon, and the Upper Midwest team at Strategic Retirement Partners (SRP) have excelled in their industry education, experience, and earning important credentials:

• Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF®), Certified 401k Professional (C(k)P®), Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor (CPFA®), Retirement Income Certified Professional (RICP®), Chartered Mutual Fund Counselor (CMFC), and Chartered Retirement Plan Specialist (CRPS)

• CEFEX Certification for Fiduciary Excellence—this certification is only granted by CEFEX to firms that demonstrate adherence to fiduciary best practices

• Independent recognition, including 401kWire's "Top 300 Most Influential Defined Contribution Advisors in America”, Financial Times’ "Top 401 Retirement Plan Advisors", 401k Specialist Magazine’s Top Advisor by Participant Outcomes, and one of three finalists for PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year

Reach Out to PSR Today.