Nathan Cooley

Marketing Director & Shareholder

Nathan is the Marketing Director for Nova 401(k) Associates in the North Texas Area. He has spent the last fourteen years in the retirement plan industry and his background includes sales, design, implementation and administration of defined contribution plans. His responsibilities include the establishment and maintenance of relationships with Nova’s many different partners in the retirement plan community, assisting financial advisors and plan sponsors with retirement plan design options, and navigating a broad variety of retirement plan providers.

Nathan’s industry advice for plan sponsors is, “When implementing a retirement plan you will hear a lot about due diligence on the investment selection and monitoring process, fiduciary risks/warranties/guarantees/automated processes, etc., and at the end of the day those are all important, but ultimately none of those points matter if employees aren’t participating in the plan.” He explains, “Education and investment advice are instrumental in raising participation, but the true key to success is designing the right retirement plan to fit the needs of yourself and your employees.”

When it comes to 401(k) plan advice for financial advisors, Nathan says, “Leverage the support offered by retirement plan providers. Most advisors do not focus on retirement plans, generally it’s a value add for a current client or the opportunity just presented itself. Rather than devoting significant personal resources, utilize your partners in the retirement community whose sole focus the design, implementation and maintenance of plans. This approach should result in a more profitable plan for the advisor, a more robust plan for the plan sponsor, and overall better experience for everyone involved.