The Appleton Group

26 | I NSIGH T • A p r i l 2 0 1 6 w w w . i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m Wisconsin-based plans. "is has always been a point of frustration for me because I sell our investment offerings to the marketplace and a lot of times people with retirement plan needs would fly across the country to meet with people, and oentimes someone they know is flying across the country to meet with someone from Wisconsin. e reality is Wisconsin has so many good investment managers I believe there is a good opportunity to build a good portfolio for those with retirement needs right here in the state." e way the Wisconsin Select program works is that the 20 participating fund managers provide investment products with assets they manage. Any investment broker can then offer Wisconsin Select as a retirement plan to a company, nonprofit or municipality for their employees. "e easiest correlation might be if you were to eat at a restaurant, they use produce from many vendors," Kops explains. "We are the produce. And we think there are plenty of phenomenal homegrown products here to make a great meal for folks." Chuck Self, chief operating officer and chief investment officer of iSectors, Appleton, says his firm jumped at the chance to participate. "is is an opportunity to introduce employers to high- quality services — and keep the funds for those services in the state and local economies," he says. "ere's a market out there for employers to use the high-quality providers for retirement plans domiciled here in Wisconsin." e amount of research that went into forming Wisconsin Select impressed Mark Knipfer and Stew Dybdahl of Madison Investments when Scheffler invited them to Appleton. "He did a lot of legwork on this, and I think even he was taken aback at how many good, quality managers live in the state of Wisconsin," says Knipfer, Midwest regional director. e University of Wisconsin-Madison's Applied Securities Program contributes to a pool of talent that feeds into the fund management firms in the state, says Dybdahl, associate regional consultant for Madison. "It's one of the home grown c o n t i n u e d "There's a market out there for employers to use the high- quality providers for retirement plans domiciled here in Wisconsin." – Chuck Self, chief operating officer and chief investment officer of iSectors, Appleton most respected programs in the United States and we do have a number of alumni here at Madison Investments." Both agree, however, that time will tell how much interest there will be for Wisconsin Select. Companies may not want to make a big change with their retirement funds if they're content with what they have. "Some may argue that you're excluding yourself from a big universe of investment managers," Knipfer says. "is may not necessarily be a plan that works for everyone, but there is enough business in Wisconsin to react positively." Wisconsin State Assembly Rep. Mike Rohrkaste of Neenah, who retired as chief human resources officer of Oshkosh Corp. in 2014 and was responsible for selecting retirement fund management for thousands of employees, admits he was initially skeptical when Scheffler told him about Wisconsin Select. "At first I wasn't sure exactly what he was doing," Rohrkaste says. "It's a very good idea to help Wisconsin to get more of this business — I applaud what he is trying to do. He's going to have to compete against these bigger companies to show they can do everything that a company like Oshkosh, Kimberly-Clark or Harley-Davidson want them to do. It's a competitive world out there." Rohrkaste points out that large companies that employ people around the world may not be swayed by the case for managing their enormous retirement funds out of Wisconsin, particularly if they can't compete on price. Scheffler is the first to say that a retirement plan must first do right by its employees in terms of value, and being managed in Wisconsin should be secondary. » Founded: 2002 » Employees: 6 » Assets under management: $165 million » Location: 100 W Lawrence St., Suite 306 » Website: appletongrouponline.com The Appleton Group LLC

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