When working with other retirement plan providers, the most important word is trust. You must have trust in the providers you work with and trust in the providers that you refer business.

Trust doesn’t happen overnight and it certainly takes time. That’s why I would always laugh when I was at a networking meeting and I would bump into a stockbroker or insurance salesman who thought I would start referring them business then and there. It doesn’t work that way,

Trust takes time to develop and it can be broken in an instant. I know of so many circumstances where a provider that was referred business did such a poor job that it caused the referrer business or a producing third party administrator that would take business from the financial advisors that referred them work.

When you refer work to a plan provider and they violate your trust in them, it’s sort of like having a spouse who cheats on you. How can you ever trust them again and how can you repair the damage?  Unlike a cheating spouse, it’s easy to get rid of the provider that stabbed you in the back. However, is it really wise to chuck a provider you devoted so much time to? There is no easy answer. All I can say is that trust is the most important thing you have in other providers and hopefully, you don’t have to make the call if it’s betrayed.