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Marcus Lemonis, a serial entrepreneur and host of the show “The Profit” on CNBC, is a true survivor in the corporate world. The native-born Lebanese business man endured the chaos of a civil war in Beirut and eventually moved to Miami. Lemonis was exposed to the automotive industry throughout his upbringing - his grandfather owning two of the largest Chevrolet dealerships in the United States and Lee Iacocca serving as the family friend and later mentor to Lemonis. On page 12, we conducted an interview with “Profit” host Marcus Lemonis, who offers struggling small businesses capital investment and his expertise in exchange for an ownership stake in the company. In the latter part of the magazine, we interviewed countless wealth advisors during these tough economic times. We recognize that some of the changes in 2013 and 2014 require relevance for financial planners. Therefore, the financial industry continues to push for more realistic standards and reforms.
Marcus Lemonis, a serial entrepreneur and host of the show “The Profit” on CNBC, is a true survivor in the corporate world. The native-born Lebanese business man endured the chaos of a civil war in Beirut and eventually moved to Miami. Lemonis was exposed to the automotive industry throughout his upbringing - his grandfather owning two of the largest Chevrolet dealerships in the United States and Lee Iacocca serving as the family friend and later mentor to Lemonis. On page 12, we conducted an interview with “Profit” host Marcus Lemonis, who offers struggling small businesses capital investment and his expertise in exchange for an ownership stake in the company. In the latter part of the magazine, we interviewed countless wealth advisors during these tough economic times. We recognize that some of the changes in 2013 and 2014 require relevance for financial planners. Therefore, the financial industry continues to push for more realistic standards and reforms.
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y felix badea<br />
Employees<br />
Need<br />
Education<br />
Texas-based fiduciary<br />
and trustee of employer-sponsored<br />
defined<br />
contribution plans views<br />
participant education<br />
as critical component to<br />
plan success<br />
Jeff Atwell, Senior Vice President Trust Division<br />
of American National Bank of Texas<br />
Participate in an employer-sponsored<br />
defined contribution plan<br />
for retirement savings and you<br />
are twice as likely to feel confident<br />
that your accumulated savings will<br />
be adequate to fund your retirement.<br />
According to a March 2014 press release<br />
detailing results from the annual<br />
Retirement Confidence Survey by the<br />
Employee Benefit Research Institute<br />
in Washington, D.C., 24 percent of<br />
surveyed employees participating in<br />
a DCP feel prepared for retirement as<br />
compared to only nine percent of survey<br />
respondents whose employers do<br />
not offer plans. The EBRI survey – now<br />
in its 24th year – is the nation’s longest<br />
running survey tracking employee retirement<br />
confidence.<br />
Those statistics don’t surprise Jeff<br />
Atwell, senior vice president in the<br />
Trust Division of American National<br />
Bank of Texas with its trust office in<br />
Fort Worth, Texas. In his 40 years in the<br />
financial services industry, Atwell has<br />
designed or administered more than<br />
2,000 retirement plans. He admits his<br />
earlier career years paid greater attention<br />
to the needs of employer’s providing<br />
retirement plans. That has certainly<br />
changed. As the retirement savings<br />
paradigm has shifted from defined<br />
benefit plans to plans in which participants<br />
play a larger role in determining<br />
the amount of savings, Atwell’s focus<br />
turned toward educating the plan participants.<br />
“The participant has the responsibility<br />
to make sure that they properly<br />
manage their investment choices based<br />
on their risk tolerance and time horizon,”<br />
Atwell said. “They need to use<br />
the tools and resources that are made<br />
available to them through the platform<br />
and advisor services of the plan chosen<br />
by the employer.”<br />
Unfortunately, many employees<br />
don’t have the financial investment<br />
knowledge base to evaluate the myriad<br />
of choices. That is a primary reason<br />
why Atwell prefers to design and<br />
govern plans for employers committed<br />
to allowing financial advisors to meet<br />
regularly with employees to provide<br />
assistance at the workplace. He is concerned<br />
that far too many of today’s<br />
workers are woefully underfunded in<br />
their retirement savings.<br />
“It is getting more difficult to have<br />
adequate savings for retirement because<br />
of the longevity risk that people<br />
have because we are fortunate to live<br />
in a country that has a really good<br />
health care system,” he said, adding<br />
that fluctuations in the investment<br />
market only add to the challenge if<br />
participants of defined contribution<br />
plans don’t follow sound, prudent financial<br />
advice. He’s talking about not<br />
panicking during market downturns<br />
such as occurred in 2008 and 2009.<br />
“Those participants that understood<br />
that was a period of time when good<br />
decisions needed to be followed and<br />
to not make emotional decisions stood<br />
the course, were positioned correctly<br />
and have actually fared much better<br />
since then than participants who made<br />
emotional decisions in regards to their<br />
investment and made poor decisions.”<br />
Learn more about Atwell and the Trust<br />
Division of the American National<br />
Bank of Texas online at www.anbtx.<br />
com/Wealth-Management/Trust-Professionals/JeffAtwell<br />
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.29
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