Meet Greg Bakke, Co-Founder and President of Expand Financial. As a Mid Atlantic Capital Group business partner and registered representative of Mid Atlantic Capital Corporation, member FINRA/SIPC, Greg is an independent financial advisor who specializes in defined contribution and defined benefit retirement plan advisory services, including 401(k), 403(b), 457, and IRA accounts. His background in open architecture and technology led him to recently develop a comprehensive, cost efficient retirement plan solution called Ready Go! 401(k), which provides clients with a thorough portfolio review, a strong investment lineup, is fully transparent in terms of fees, and supports the plan sponsor in their fiduciary role.

Greg was born and raised in Denver, Colorado, and attended the University of Colorado at Boulder where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration with an emphasis in finance and accounting. He also holds a Master’s of Science degree in computer information systems from the University of Denver.

Greg’s background includes over 20 years of experience in finance and technology. He has spent the past 15 years performing various functions for multiple institutional custodians servicing independent record keepers, third party administrators, and registered investment advisors. Greg previously held senior management positions as Chief Technology and Chief Information Officer at Fiserv Trust Services and Trust Company of America (TCA).

After having spent a number of years building and managing “back office” technology infrastructures to support the financial advisory and administration businesses of his employers, Greg formed Expand Revenue Management LLC in 2009. Through this firm, he focused on the ever increasing fee disclosure and transparency needs of the retirement plan industry. With the introduction of 408(b)(2) and other continued DOL ERISA regulation, Expand is uniquely ahead of the marketplace in helping assemble a solution to aid with compliance to the new regulations. Greg is also part of the advisory function behind eFiduciary Advisor, another technology-based solution, and acts as an Investment Consultant 3(21) or Investment Manager 3(38) to retirement plans.

We recently caught up with Greg Bakke to get an inside view regarding Ready Go! 401(k) and his partnership with Mid Atlantic:

What motivated you to create Ready Go! 401(k)?

Retirement plan sponsors need help, advisors need help, and participants need help, all to be successful optimizing the retirement plan. ReadyGo! makes it easy for all three to be successful. We felt, especially in the small to mid-plan market, that good solutions using open architecture exist but constructing the solution is complex if you are not a retirement plan expert. We wanted to make it easy for those to get access to the benefits of open architecture solutions, but with the ease of a bundled product.

What makes Ready Go! 401(k) unique from other retirement planning solutions on the market?

ReadyGo! aligns major open architecture experts into an easy to use turnkey solution. It addresses the issues often overlooked when constructing a plan. The features and benefits include top plan design, optimal investment options, favorable cost versus market, and investment fiduciary coverage. Advisors and plans can get access to top investment managers that they are familiar with, thus allowing the participant access to high end wealth management investments typically not available at the individual level.

Why did you choose Mid Atlantic over other broker-dealers?

Among others, Mid Atlantic specializes in retirement plans (advisory and custody). They get the space better than anyone else we considered. This understanding allows us to build an optimal and compliant retirement plan solution for each and every case we serve. Their access to top record keepers, top investment managers (very streamlined), and strong technology allows us to offer big plan solutions in the mid- to smaller plan market.

What questions should a financial advisor be asking before presenting Ready Go! 401(k)?

The ReadyGo! solution is designed to help all levels of advisors win new plans and improve current plans they are servicing. The main question is: “How does this make me, as the plan advisor, great in a world where I need stand out from the others?” ERISA and retirement plans are complex. We off-load that complexity from the plan advisor, create an amazing solution for their client (and for them), and provide the on-going support to ensure the plan solution remains best in breed. This protects the important client relationship for the advisor. Advisors appreciate that by using ReadyGo! they can quickly become more knowledgeable of the space. They also like that they aren’t ultimately responsible for this expertise.

What is the close ratio of those plans that propose Ready Go! as a solution?

We are closing approximately 75 percent of the proposals we send out.

What are your hobbies and interests?

ERISA. 🙂  Truthfully, I enjoy doing anything outdoors and active. I run marathons, do triathlons, love golf, hockey, etc. Anything that involves my two boys who are also highly active! They keep me on my toes.