LinkedIn Live: Industry Insights with Bryan Hodgens — Exploring DC Plan Advisors’ Views About Alternative Investments and Pooled Employer Plans

Overview

Who Should Join

Anyone involved with the sale, administration, distribution, or implementation of DC plans and workplace benefits

Highlights

In recent years, there have been efforts to expand access to the defined contribution (DC) market. The Secure Act of 2019 introduced Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs), allowing unrelated businesses to join a single 401(k) plan. In August 2025, the White House issued an Executive Order to open the possibility of including alternative investments in employer-sponsored, DC plans. Both have the possibility of attracting new entrants to the market. How are DC plan advisors responding to these developments and how are they advising their clients?  

 Join Bryan Hodgens, senior vice president and head of LIMRA Research and Deb Dupont, assistant vice president and head of Institutional Retirement Research, LIMRA Workplace Benefits, as they share the latest DC plan advisor survey results and what it means for alternative investment and PEP adoption in DC plans.

Presenters

Bryan Hodgens

Senior Vice President, Head of Research, LIMRA and LOMA

Bryan Hodgens

Senior Vice President, Head of Research, LIMRA and LOMA

Bryan Hodgens is Senior Vice President and Head of Research for LIMRA and LOMA. In this capacity, he develops and executes the research strategy for both the distribution and retirement research programs, focused on providing insights and best practices to address the current and emerging business challenges facing LIMRA members.

Hodgens joined LIMRA in 2022 with more than 25 years of executive experience at companies such as AIG, Wells Fargo Advisors and Asset Growth Partners. Most recently, he was senior vice president and head of LPL Financials’ Retirement Plans and Financial Planning Group.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Emory University in Atlanta Georgia.

Deb Dupont

Assistant Vice President Workplace Benefits Research, Institutional Retirement, LIMRA and LOMA

Deb Dupont

Assistant Vice President Workplace Benefits Research, Institutional Retirement, LIMRA and LOMA

Deb Dupont is responsible for LIMRA’s institutional (retirement plans) retirement research program. She conducts and supervises research, benchmark reporting, and study groups focused on the issues and trends faced by constituents of the defined contribution industry. She also provides guidance and thought leadership in helping LIMRA's member firms better understand the opportunities available for improving delivery of institutional retirement solutions.

Prior to joining LIMRA in 2014, Deb was the Director of ING's Retirement Research Institute (the Institute), where she created, managed, and published a research platform that included work focusing on multi-cultural, generational, and gender-based analyses of retirement behaviors, and also published insights and analyses of ING's own cross-defined contribution (i.e., across employment sectors) participant base. Deb's work has been recognized for effectiveness and quality by some of the most prestigious awards in the financial services and communications industries, including the Insurance and Financial Communicators' Association and the International Association of Business Communicators. She is a graduate of the University of Connecticut.