Nathan Helms: Building a People First Retirement Plan That Works

What if the secret to building a truly successful retirement plan wasn’t about plan features at all—but about culture, intention, and the belief that employees deserve more than the bare minimum? In this episode of The Gap, host Shannon Edwards sits down with Nathan Helms, Controller at Balon Corporation, to explore what happens when a company decides that taking care of people is non-negotiable. With over sixty years of employee-first leadership behind them, Balon has created a retirement plan that has grown from 165 participants to more than 1,100—and Nathan shares firsthand how that transformation was built from the inside out.

Whether you're an employer, advisor, or benefits manager, this conversation gives you an inspiring, practical look at what it means to create real retirement readiness for real people. You’ll hear how intentional design, thoughtful communication, and a deep respect for a diverse workforce can change not only participation rates, but lives. This episode will challenge you, motivate you, and remind you exactly why your role in closing the retirement savings gap matters more than ever. Tune in—because this is what it looks like when an employer gets it right. 

In this episode, Shannon and Nathan Helms discuss: 

• Strategic plan design decisions that drive long-term employee retirement readiness
• Approaches employers use to boost participation and keep employees engaged
• Communication challenges in supporting diverse and multilingual workforces
• Policy and compliance barriers that impact employers’ ability to strengthen retirement benefits

Key Takeaways:

• Implementing automatic enrollment alongside consistent, in-person education sessions significantly increases participation and helps employees understand how to build long-term financial security.
• Designing a plan that combines open-architecture investments, a supportive match structure, and thoughtful guardrails reduces leakage, encourages higher contribution rates, and protects employees from self-sabotage.
• Providing multilingual materials and trusted, in-house translators ensures employees from diverse backgrounds fully understand the plan, leading to stronger engagement and remarkable individual success stories.
• Simplifying compliance correction processes and increasing safe harbor match flexibility would empower more employers to offer meaningful retirement benefits without being overwhelmed by regulatory complexity. 

"Do right by the employee, and they’ll do right by you. You’ll see a lot of success." — Nathan Helms

Connect with Nathan Helms:  

Website: https://www.balo

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Welcome back to the podcast where we explore how we can folks with the retirement savings gap and the retirement plan coverage gap for working Americans. I'm your host and the owner of TriStar Pension Consulting, Shannon Edwards. First, I would like to welcome all listeners to our podcast with a special welcome to those of you who are listening for the first time. I started this podcast because I have a passion for helping Americans achieve a dignified retirement. By sharing innovative ideas, we can improve the lives of working Americans. Each month, I get a chance to talk with leaders from across the retirement plan industry, record keepers, advisors, attorneys, actuaries, and policymakers, all working toward one shared goal, helping more Americans retire with dignity. But today's episode is extra special because instead of hearing from someone who services retirement plans, we get to hear from someone who runs one, an employer who is doing this incredibly well. Joining me today is Nathan Helms, controller at Ballon Corporation right here in Oklahoma City. Ballon has been a tristar client since the year 2000. And I want you to hear this. Back then, their plan had about 165 participants and just over 2.7 million in assets. Today, they have over 1,100 participants and more than$113 million in plan assets. That kind of growth doesn't just happen. It happens when a company is intentional. It happens when leadership leaves in taking care of its people. And it happens when a retirement plan becomes part of the culture, not just a benefit. Nathan has played a major role in that transformation. And today he's going to share how Ballon approaches plan design, employee education, and retirement readiness in a real and refreshing way. So let's dive in. Nathan Helms serves as the controller at Ballon Corporation, a manufacturing leader headquartered in Oklahoma City with a strong financial background and deep commitment to employee well-being. Nathan oversees not just the financial operation of the company, but also plays a strategic role in guiding Ballon's employee benefit programs, including their highly successful retirement plan. Under Ballon's leadership, the retirement plan has experienced extraordinary growth. Nathan's thoughtful approach to plan design, employee education, and cultural inclusion has helped the company support a wonderfully diverse workforce and empower employees to build a real financial security. Nathan is known for his steady leadership, his people first philosophy, and his dedication to helping employees retire with dignity. We are thrilled to have him here on the gap. Welcome, Nathan.

SPEAKER_03 2:56

Thanks, Shannon.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Nathan, before we get into the plan itself, can you share your personal career journey? What led you into accounting and ultimately into your role as the controller at Balon?

SPEAKER_03 3:08

That's kind of funny you asked that. When I was in high school, my brother and I both ended up going into accounting. And when people asked us that question, we generally said it was because it was first on the list. Yeah. Really, our mom was an accountant and uh dad was an engineer. We didn't understand and understand what he did, so we both followed our mom into practice. From there, after OU went to OU, I started with Grant Thornton, it's a public accounting firm that a lot of people have probably heard from. Ballin and the Scaramucci family were clients of mine. Uh, when my predecessor here at Ballin decided to take the retirement leap, they actually reached out to see if I was if I'd be interested in taking that role. So uh started here in 2016 and I've been uh learning every day.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Very nice. Yeah, my father was an accountant too, which is how I ended up in accounting. Actually, I wanted to be an artist, and he told me I had to get a degree that would pay for the bills.

SPEAKER_03 4:03

So that's fair. Good advice.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Yeah, and I had I had grown up working in his firm when I was had days out of school, I had to go file billing for him. So I was like, okay, let's just try this. Was there a defining moment or influence that shaped the way you think about employee benefits and retirement readiness?

SPEAKER_03 4:22

A lot of that came um when I started at Bowen. I had seen it, you know, as a client, you don't really understand it until you you get here how employee first and how uh loyal this company is. You know, and our we're celebrating our 60th year this year, and our company has never had a layoff. The benefits package is rich for our employees. You can really tell from day one that uh they take a employee first mentality, uh, whether it's their, you know, no layoffs, the benefits that pay for, the benefits they provide, employees come first. And so I've adopted that mindset and tried to participate as much as I can.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Yeah, it is, and congratulations on 60 years. But watching you all and working with you all over the past several years, it has been amazing to me. You're one of my favorite clients. I really love the way you've always taken care of your employees. Even when we went through COVID and all of that, you all still took care of everybody. And it's always been amazing to me how much you all really that's just a part of your culture. And I think you guys have done a great job. And I get to see a lot of employers. And so you guys really stick out as one of the best as far as taking care of your employees.

SPEAKER_03 5:33

Yeah, one thing that I'll share that we did in 2020, we ran out of work, the orders didn't come in. So what we did is we actually took a subset of our employees and we sent them out into the community, the Oklahoma City Food Bank, the Oklahoma City Zoo, and the Oklahoma State Fair. We actually sent employees to those locations, continued to pay them, but they did work for those entities there. Uh, and they reaped all the benefit of free labor is Oklahoma, but we they were taking home a paycheck and they felt like they were giving it back to the community. So it's just another way that Balin and the Scaramouche family really support Oklahoma City.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

That's really awesome. That's really incredible. When Balan started with TriStar in 2000, the plan obviously was much smaller. From your perspective, what have been the key drivers in the incredible growth that your plan has seen?

SPEAKER_03 6:21

Well, we had great advisors, uh kind of leading us down the right path and providing us with the best options for our employees. But I think a couple of things that we've done as they've come along, you know, we've implemented Roth, we've done the automatic enrollment, we've opened up our and we've changed our investments to where it's kind of an open architecture so we can get the best of the best funds. There's a it's and none of these happened all at once. It's kind of as as we went along, just improved the plan every time we saw an opportunity, saw something better.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Yeah, I remember you guys are one of the first clients that I had that adopted automatic enrollment. So that was a lot of fun conversations. And then to watch you all implement it, I've learned I learned a lot too.

SPEAKER_03 7:04

Yeah. Well, today I looked this up before we jumped on, and we're getting closer and closer to 90% participation, which That's amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

That's amazing. How has Balon's philosophy around offering a retirement plan evolved over the years? And how has the company's mission or culture influenced how you shape the plan?

SPEAKER_03 7:24

You know, I think that happens as the company grew up. You know, when you're starting out, you're worried about the business. And um, I think as people got closer to retirement or started retiring, the company started looking at that like, well, we want people to retire comfortably or or with dignity, like you said earlier. And so, how's the best way to do that? And I I think I think that was kind of the the start of the plan and and really starting to think about how do we do this the best way for our employees.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Yeah. Balance participation rate, like you said, and the account balances show that employees are actually using the plan and succeeding inside of it. What specific plan design decisions do you feel have had the biggest impact on your employees' outcomes?

SPEAKER_03 8:09

Definitely the out of enrollment. One thing that we do specifically at Valentine is we have enrollment meetings where we are in front of every person every, you know, each quarter enrolling them, explaining to them the plan, any questions they have, and really providing, you know, explaining the benefits, you know, pay pay your future self so that when you retire, you have this nest egg. So that I think it's really uh getting in in front of the participant and for those that are just resistant, we have the automatic enrollment. But I think those are probably the two things that we do best. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

How does the company approach decisions around your matching contributions, your eligibility? Um, obviously, we've been talking about automatic enrollment. How do you all as a committee approach those decisions?

SPEAKER_03 8:58

We've got a great committee, and really we want to do what's best for the employee. So TriStar and Shannon have done a great job of explaining what's the you know, within our framework for a safe harbor plan. How do we maximize people's savings? How do we encourage them best? So whenever there's an opportunity to uh make it a little more rich so that people will to encourage people to save more, we take advantage of that. When we design the plan, we try to not uh we try to make it flexible enough, but at the same time constricted enough that people aren't aren't pulling from that plan too much so that they don't steal from their future self. So just trying to set them up is kind of our philosophy.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Set them up for success, right? Don't let them get in their own way.

SPEAKER_03 9:42

Whether they like it or not. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Yeah. Yeah. No, I will say I have noticed that your approach is very paternalistic, which is good because it keeps them from hurting themselves.

SPEAKER_03 9:54

It's a great description. Yeah. Paternalistic.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Yeah, yeah. I have a lot of clients who run away from that, right? They say, I, you know, I'm not their parent. But I think really the approach that you guys have taken in protecting them from themselves has really helped some of your employees really see great success in their savings.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

So you have an extremely wonderfully diverse workforce, um, both in culture and language. Can you first talk about with the audience what that diverse culture looks like? And then what challenges that has created around financial education and retirement readiness?

SPEAKER_03 10:34

Sure, sure thing. We do have a very diverse workforce. A lot of people wouldn't know this about Oklahoma City, but we actually have pockets of uh large pockets of Vietnamese, um, also Burmese, and uh both of those come with unique communication challenges. Fortunately for us, we have a family culture at Malin Corporation. So, you know, whenever we're having these participant meetings or we have one-on-ones with investment advisors, we make translation available, and that's with our record keeper, or we also have employees that have volunteered to help with translation, especially during those enrollment meetings. That's uh worked out really, really well. So whenever there's a change, or whenever there's yeah, one thing that we worked with principal most recently with, we changed our enrollment forms to where they were in, I think there were five different languages languages that we uh translated the forms for.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

So that's awesome. That's awesome. And I so you all kind of find like a trusted employee that speaks that language, right? Like that the other employees trust.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

And they've they've been here a little bit longer, and most of the time they speak both English and the uh that language really well. And so even there's a a dialogue where you know they're asking questions and there's uh allows us to do that back and forth. So we make sure that everybody understands what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Yeah, I love that you guys have put so much effort into that because you know, a lot of large employers would just, you know, here's here's the enrollment material, do whatever. So it really shows your commitment that you guys have put so much effort into it. Can you share an example of how how well you've already you told us that you've already put it into what did you say, four or five different languages, your enrollment forms?

SPEAKER_03 12:26

One of my uh favorite examples, there's a she started out in assembly here in Oklahoma City, and she's from Ghana, so she actually speaks English, but not real familiar with the financial system in in the US. And so she ended up automatically enrolling, and she came off of that, but now she has started increasing her contributions year after year, and she started at our just our starting rate, and she's really she's built up a really great balance. And she asked me to look at it the other day, and I was shocked to see how much she had in her account. And I thought, you are doing everything correct, you keep doing what you're doing, and you're gonna be fine. And uh, so it's those type of little success stories where you know they they're not sure if they're doing the right thing, and you you sit down with them and you look at what they're doing, and it's like you're doing great, you're doing really great. So uh she felt a lot better, I felt a lot better. It's really rewarding for me.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

That's awesome. So from the outside looking in, it's clear Balan prioritizes people. How does the retirement plan fit into the company's broader philosophy of taking care of people?

SPEAKER_03 13:31

Okay. Um, one thing I mentioned earlier, there's lots of job security at Balon. We've in our 60-year history, we've never had a layoff. Part of our benefits package is we pay for Balin pays for the employees' health insurance. We pay for their life and disability insurance, we provide the the 401k plan. And so there's a lot of, you know, it's we can't be successful if our people aren't successful. So that's the philosophy. Um, we're all and we also have a uh customer-first focus at Balance. So if we're all pulling on the same rope, we're gonna find success. So if we're taking care of the customer, balance taking care of the employees and we're all taking care of each other, um, they'll there will be success. And that that's been the mindset since I've been here.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

That's awesome. What does helping employees retire with dignity mean to you personally and to the leadership team?

SPEAKER_03 14:24

It's very exciting to me when somebody makes that decision and they can make that decision on their own terms and um they can go out confident that they are going to live the life they want to live. That's the greatest day, is when they retire and say, I've done it, I'm happy, and I'm ready to uh to move on to the next chapter. And there's there's no fear or anxiety about, okay, I'm I can't work anymore. Where's the money going to come from? They've saved for it and they're ready to enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Yeah. Do you have like a specific story of someone who has been able to do that? You don't have to name names, but just uh someone who's been able to do that.

SPEAKER_03 15:03

Yes, it was funny. His uh he worked in our Eastern facility and he retired. He had worked at Bound for say, I don't know, 25 or 30 years. And so the over there at the Eastern facility, they had they put a party together for him. It was a surprise party. And so as during that surprise party, we were kind of asking him, you know, what so what are you going to do? And he got all excited. He just he he talked for about 30 minutes about he had planned a trip to Europe. So he was gonna go just across Europe and it was gonna happen in in two weeks, and he couldn't wait for that day. Yeah. So that was a lot of see the uh the light in his eyes, and he, you know, he he felt good about where Malin was and how he was leaving it, and he could go enjoy his retirement.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

That's awesome. From a planned sponsors perspective, what would you like to see Congress or the regulatory agencies address to better support employees' long-term retirement readiness?

SPEAKER_03 16:06

You actually mentioned this to me last week. Um, you're working uh really hard on getting legislation to where we can change the safe harbor rules so we can increase the matching contribution on um the safe harbor rules. So, you know, right now we're uh safe harbor plan where um we match on the first one percent or 100% on the first one percent and half percent on the next five. So being able to contribute more, having the employees uh contribute more and receive more on a match is is exciting news for us because we've been waiting on that for a long time.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Yes, we have been talking about that forever.

SPEAKER_03 16:41

I think that we talked about that about that every year.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Are there any rules or barriers that you believe make it harder for employers, especially mid-sized companies, to offer the most effective retirement benefits?

SPEAKER_03 16:55

Oh, that's a that's a great I think a a lot of the and I know it's for the uh employees' protections, but the compliance sometimes can get very difficult. Even small mistakes can grow uh the legs. And I I think rather than trying to punish plans for non-compliance, allowing it to be uh an easier solution when mistakes happen, making making it right. And I think that's probably what I would concentrate most on is let's do it the what's best for the uh participants, not right, right.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Yeah, it is complex. Yeah, it is complex. I call it job security.

SPEAKER_03 17:36

Yeah, that's fair. Um great firms like TriStar.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Yeah, okay. So if you could wave a magic wand and implement one policy or reform that would meaningfully close the savings or coverage gap, what would you choose?

SPEAKER_03 17:54

I think the safe harbor match, um, increasing that uh that would for our plan, that would be a game changer. Uh we'd see a higher contribution rate. Uh we'd be able to contribute more to employees' own accounts.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

And I think that would that's where I think I think it would definitely also encourage your employees to not only participate, but to raise the rate at which they participate.

SPEAKER_03 18:19

Correct. Yeah. I mean, six percent is is great, that gets you your match, but really any investment advisor is gonna, you know, they're the little the smallest over is 10%. So we need to be saving between 10 and 15, 15% of our income. And so I think that six percent feels like a ceiling to people. And if we can get that higher, um yeah, I would love to do that.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

What are your priorities for the next stage of the plan? Are there any enhancements or innovations you all are considering to further improve the employee outcomes?

SPEAKER_03 18:48

I mean, it it's working really great right now. Um, we want to continue to up our deferral rates, our participation rates. Um, we want to educate. There's a lot of noise right now. We're seeing some volatile markets, so uh I think education is definitely on the table too.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

What advice would you give other employers who want to strengthen their retirement plan but don't know where to start?

SPEAKER_03 19:11

Call Shannon.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 19:15

Yeah, you've got to find somebody that knows what they're doing, and you'll find that it's really hard in the beginning, but once it starts rolling, it it it there's a lot of momentum and uh it gets better every year. So I would reach out to somebody that knows what they're doing to get started, and uh they can help you through the process and uh you know balance a great success story that we've seen incredible growth. Uh we've improved the plan year uh year over year, every year with TriStar. And it doesn't have to be Shannon, although I highly recommend her. But uh somebody that's uh an advisor that has done this before.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

I appreciate that. If every plan sponsor in America listened to this episode, what is one thing you'd want them to take away from Balon's experience?

SPEAKER_03 20:00

I think do right by the employee and they'll they'll do right by you. Uh, you'll see a lot of success. It shows a commitment to employees if you set up a retirement plan and contribute to their retirement. Um, it's great, uh, a lot of loyalty.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

What does it mean to you personally to be a part of a company that has built a plan that genuinely changes the trajectory of people's future?

SPEAKER_03 20:22

It's one of my favorite parts of the job. It's one of those things that get you to up in the morning, get you to come to work. Uh, you know, the success stories like I talked about earlier, the girl from Ghana and the and the gentleman at Eastern that uh got to retire and travel to Europe, those are fun stories and uh glad I could be a part of them.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Yeah, that's how I feel about my job too. I mean, my job is so much fun because we get to see so many lives changed, and that's what makes me come to work every morning, is just the good that our entire industry does for people. So I agree. If is there anything we didn't cover that you wish plan sponsors or policymakers understood about the realities of running a retirement plan?

SPEAKER_03 21:03

Simplification is better.

unknown 21:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:07

Yeah, because a lot of people are discouraged because it's complicated or it's hard and they don't know how to start. And so we can simplify and get everybody saving, and I think the world will be a better place.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. I love that we were able to give our listeners a real world look at what happens when an employer is intentional and thoughtful and invested in the long-term success of its people. Ballone is a powerful example of what can happen when a company puts its employees first, not just in words, but in plan design, communication, and culture. The growth of their plan isn't just a financial success story, it's a story about families, about futures, and about an employer taking retirement readiness seriously. What Nathan shared today is exactly why we built the gap to shine a light on the people and organizations working every single day to help more Americans retire with dignity. Thank you all for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it. Follow the show and join us next month as we continue the conversation on how we can close the gap together. If you believe that you have an innovative approach to closing the gaps in retirement savings for Americans, and you would like to share your ideas, let me know. My contact information is in the show notes.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Thank you for listening to The Gap. Be sure to check out the show notes for important links, retirement plan resources, and more at trystarpension.com. While you're there, sign up for our information packed newsletter. And if you enjoy the conversation, follow our podcast, share it, and tell a friend about it. And most importantly, rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for listening.