October Three's John Lowell is bringing the best of 401(k)s and pensions to retirement

John Lowell knows that most Americans don't feel confident in their ability to retire. He's hoping to change that — but he's got his work cut out for him. 

"We have people afraid of outliving their own wealth, we have fear of inflation, fear of medicals costs in retirement, fear of long-term care costs, fear of Social Security not being around," says Lowell, a partner at advisory October Three Consulting, which specializes in retirement programs for employers with as many as 30,000 staffers. "How do we build something within the constraints of a company that helps to solve those problems?" 

​​According to Fidelity's 2023 Retirement Savings Assessment, which rates retirement preparedness in the U.S., American savers have just 78% of the income they'll need to cover their expenses during retirement, a decline from 83% in 2020. 

Read more: Meet EBN's 2023 Excellence in Benefits winners

Bridging that gap is no small task, but Lowell and his team are putting forward their best effort. In 2023, they announced the launch of O3 Prime, a new retirement solution that merges the benefits of an employee-funded 401(k) and an employer-funded cash balance pension. 

Lowell explains that this solution gives employees control of their 401(k) investment plan, and allows them to choose to be as risky or risk averse as they please; the cash-balance pension serves as a security plan, growing at a marketplace rate of return. "If you are an employer, it's personalized retirement income for your employees," he says. "And if you're an employee, it's personalized retirement income for you."

That idea of personalization, Lowell says, has become increasingly important across employee demographics, as well as to HR departments struggling to keep young talent engaged and content.

"There are huge gaps in wealth — not just in income, but in accumulated wealth. Employees want to know what they're going to be provided with that specifically helps them as opposed to the person at the next desk," he says. "There's a difference between serving a 10,000-life company and serving 10,000 employees of a 10,000-life company." 

Read more: Mindy Zatto is helping employers build the right retirement plan

Since O3 Prime launched, it's gained traction among financial institutions and attracted additional interest from the healthcare and energy industries — three disparate spaces with three very different employee profiles, Lowell points out. It's earning buy-in from both HR teams and finance teams, who are painfully aware of the cost of employee attrition and are looking for cost-effective retention tools. 

While Lowell admits that the offering does take some explaining as clients familiarize themselves with a new approach, he's there to support his clients as they get employees up to speed, and to help them understand what this new offering can mean for their life, their unique financial situation, and their future.

"We are there to be whatever our clients are not," he says. "I like to ask HR people, if you had more people on your team, what would you use them for? They show us the gaps — and if some of those gaps align with things I can do, that's where I fill in."