It’s our job to take care of your plan

Use your retirement plan to strategically grow your company and attract the best. Your job is to take care of your people. It's our job to take care of your plan. We navigate the regulations, share fiduciary liability, and advocate on your behalf.

Our founder

Courtenay Shipley, CRPS, AIF, CPFA

Our Chief Planologist, Courtenay Shipley, has a diverse background in the retirement plan industry providing a unique foundation for her clients in the areas of fiduciary responsibility, investment analysis, and participant education. During her career she has provided institutional investment consulting to qualified retirement plans, developed business strategy for a boutique third party administrator and recordkeeper, conducted over 9,000 education meetings to groups and individual employees, and served the nonprofit market.

Courtenay is an enthusiastic and focused retirement plan advisor who is committed to the idea that everyone should have the luxury of deciding how they spend their time later in life, on their terms. She is passionate about her work and thinks the key to making change in a complex world is listening to people and enabling them with the tools and knowledge they need to meet their goals and retool their habits.

Courtenay is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, and is licensed as an investment advisor representative (Series 66). She holds the Accredited Investment Fiduciary™ (AIF®) designation through the Center for Fiduciary Studies, the Chartered Retirement Plan Specialist (CRPS) designation from the American College of Financial Planning, the Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor (CPFA) from National Association of Plan Advisors, and the Certified Health Savings Advisor (CHSA) designation. Since 2015 she has been featured in the Financial Times Top 401 Retirement Plan Advisors annual list, named a Top Women Advisor All-Star by the National Association of Plan Advisors, and named a 2018 NAPA Young Gun: Top 75 under 40.

Designees of the AIF® have successfully completed a specialized program on retirement investment fiduciary standards of care, passed a comprehensive examination, and met the designation’s education and professional experience prerequisites. The AIF® designation signifies the knowledge necessary to understand and implement a prudent process for fiduciaries of retirement plans in conformity to a Global Fiduciary Standard of Excellence. Designees of the CRPS mark have successfully demonstrated specialized knowledge in retirement plans. The CPFA credential recognizes consultants' proficiency in retirement planning, administration, and regulatory compliance, and demonstrates knowledge, expertise and commitment to working with retirement plans. The CHSA® designation is a comprehensive, advisor-focused HSA designation program. She's also involved with several organizations including Her Corner, National Association of Plan Advisors, NAPA Thrive NAWBO Greater DC, current president of the Retirement Advisor Council, and serves on the board of Collaborative Testing Services.

Our team

ADAM JEFFERIS, CRPS, CPFA - VP OF PLANOLOGY

Adam Jefferis is our VP of Planology. Adam came to us from Edelman Financial, where he was the retirement plan divisional manager. He has been in the industry since 2005 and was a corporate pilot for 5 years prior to that. (He never crashed a plane — we checked). Adam grew up in Western PA, so don't hold his affinity for the Steelers or his Pittsburghese against him.

Adam is licensed as an investment advisor representative (Series 66) and holds the Chartered Retirement Plan Specialist (CRPS) designation from the American College of Financial Planning and the Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor credential from the National Association of Plan Advisors (NAPA). Adam occasionally brags about being an Eagle Scout, which he says gives him the power to make fire out of nothing. This should be particularly encouraging to those who have gotten a late start in building their nest egg.

Emma Borders

Emma is Jedi of Data Engineering and Manipulation. You think you know Excel, but she knows it better. Her degree is in Ceramic and Materials Engineering.

Madi Tucker

Madi is Wrangler of Administrative Duties and Time Travel. She project manages better than a professional lion tamer, and supports us from afar.

Join us

To be on our team, you've got to be a really good problem-solver, you have to like people, you have to be passionate about helping businesses provide the best retirement plan they can within their constraints, and about helping Americans be able to retire the way they want.

  • Here's how we work. No matter your role, we need you to produce quality, accurate products that can be "shipped" to clients. We need quality, accuracy, and on-time delivery, and there are often many routes that lead to that destination and a lot of leeway in how you get there. With that amount of freedom comes a lot of responsibility. That can be freaky to folks who like manuals or checklists -- we don't have a ton of those, or if you're used to dictation as opposed to guidance from management. We generally keep regular business hours in two time zones but we've got families and lives outside of work, so we're flexible, as long as there's consistency. Deadlines are serious. Work banter is not. We fail hard and quickly pivot when necessary, and we improve on prototypes. We'll never say that something works just because we've always done it that way. That may be stressful at times to folks who prefer a very predictable environment, but recognize that you will be a key part of any changes made. Finally, there is a hierarchy at our firm but everyone's voice is important. We value conflict, disagreement, and diverse perspectives as a way to get to the best work product.

Our philosophy is to surround ourselves with people smarter than us as employees or strategic partners.  We're always looking for talented, knowledgeable folks to join our team. Below are two roles we have.

  • The Planologist role is as a licensed investment advisor representative and it's a combo sales and service job. You'll need to be familiar with and knowledgeable about 401(k) and 403(b) plans at a minimum, and you'll need to love them! If you are newer to retirement plans, your primary function will be to work alongside the Chief Planologist in getting new clients and servicing current clients. You'll develop your own book of clients that you're responsible for, and you'll advise and educate plan participants at their workplace. This of this as an apprenticeship role, where you spend the first two years learning everything you can and when you can demonstrate you won't crash the car, we'll give you the keys. Now, if you're old school and you've got experience and maybe already your own clients, you'll learn how we do stuff and then hook onto our infrastructure/support for your practice and keep on running.

  • The Client Happiness Manager is our project management, customer support, and problem-solving role. You'll be helping wrangle client issues and supporting our client experience. We will want to give you awards for and titles like "Anticipator of Needs," "Crafter of Customer Experience," and "Solutions Architect." Generally, you like to take broken and disparate things and put them into a nice and tidy situation. You will interface with some clients, but you'll definitely be talking with our vendors on a regular basis. You embrace using technology to its fullest extent. You probably feel good when everything is in its place. You might have been considered an overly inquisitive kid growing up or you might be the neighborhood skeptic. This could be your first job out of school or your ramp-down job. Bonus points if you live in the Metro DC area or Nashville, TN. Big time bonus points if you come from the retirement plan world and can speak recordkeeper and TPA.

Find us

950 N Washington St, Ste 242

Alexandria, VA 22314

703-595-2829

 

Ask us anything

When growing organizations need assistance with their employee retirement plan, they come to us