Core Strengths

• Industry Experience
• Subject Matter Expertise
• Proven Methodology

Core Clients

• Brokerage Firms
• Mutual Fund Companies
• Insurance Companies
• Banks
• Credit Unions

Core Team

• Ben Norquist
• Jennifer Norquist
• Loni Porta
• Julie Robinson
• Tim Larsen

Ben E. Norquist, CPC, CISP, President & CEO

Ben is the co-founder and CEO of Convergent. While still not certain how he ended up working in the financial services industry, it wasn’t long after starting in the 1980s that Ben—an individual with a life-long passion for learning and problem solving—discovered federal retirement law was one of those gifts that seems to keep on giving. While Ben readily admits that his tolerance for undue regulatory complexity has waned considerably over the years, his passion for discovering real-world solutions to retirement industry challenges and opportunities continues to grow.

As an industry thought leader who has spearheaded many diverse industry initiatives with long-lasting impact, Ben believes the IRA and defined contribution industry is rapidly approaching a momentous crossroad—one that will reshape not only the federal regulatory framework underpinning the nation’s tax-sheltered retirement savings landscape, but also the fundamental ways in which the financial services industry supports the needs of the nation’s retirement savers and retirees. For a would-be renaissance man who has spent over 30 years preparing for such an event, there truly is no time like the present.

Working with a dedicated team of seasoned industry experts, Ben analyzes retirement industry trends, challenges and opportunities from multiple perspectives and then works hand-in-hand with his colleagues and many of the industry’s leading financial service providers to develop and implement successful, real-world solutions.

After receiving a BA degree in 1987 from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, Ben started with Universal Pensions, Inc. (UPI), a nationally recognized consulting and training firm located in central Minnesota. Over the next fifteen years, Ben had the good fortune to lead several highly successful business units within UPI, including the company’s consulting hotline, the UPI Consulting Group, and Open Finance Technologies (OFT).

During his tenure at UPI, Ben was instrumental in spearheading the development of multiple products, including UPI’s Individual(k) product, Qualified Plan Reference Service, and comprehensive Retirement Strategist line of web-based planning tools. During this same period, Ben received the certified pension consultant (CPC) designation from the American Society of Pension Actuaries and played a key role in creating the industry’s first IRA-specific designation program (the American Bankers Association’s Certified IRA Services Professional (CISP) program).

Ben subsequently co-founded Convergent Retirement Plan Solutions, LLC, in 2004. Since its founding, Convergent has been fortunate to work closely with many of the nation’s leading financial service organizations to help them define, refine and enhance their retirement product and service offerings.

Ben and his wife Jennifer are co-founders of Convergent. They live in northern Minnesota with their three sons, including twins. On a Saturday, you’ll likely find Ben schlepping through the Minnesota wilderness in search of wild edibles, an undiscovered trout pond, the perfect camping spot, or simply a quiet place to sit under a tree with a cup of coffee and a good book. His bucket list includes a stop at Listening Point, the northern Minnesota lakeside retreat of famed conservationist and author Sigurd Olson. Most people don’t know that his taste in food, music, literature and motor vehicles tends toward the idiosyncratic end of the reasonableness spectrum. Lastly, Ben’s favorite thing about Minnesota is the fact that the scenes portrayed in the movie Grumpy Old Men are pretty much dead on.

Jennifer R. Norquist, CEBS, GPA, RPA, Managing Partner

Jennifer is co-founder and managing partner of Convergent. Jennifer keeps the Convergent wheels turning by handling the behind the scenes tasks—writing and editing, office management and human resources. Flawless subject-verb agreement, organized office schedules and to-do lists with deadlines all make her smile.

Prior to co-founding Convergent in 2004, Jennifer was director of the Retirement Products and Services Group at Universal Pensions, Inc. (UPI), a nationally recognized consulting and training firm located in central MN. In her 11 years at UPI, Jennifer managed staff and oversaw the development and delivery of numerous retirement products and services, including publications and seminar/training services.

Jennifer is a graduate of the University of Minnesota-Duluth with a degree in English and journalism. She also holds the Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS) designation from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Jennifer’s CEBS designation was earned by passing a series of 10 national examinations on employee benefit subjects, including IRAs, all types of employer retirement plans, accounting and health care plans.

Jennifer lives in northern Minnesota with her husband, Ben (president, CEO and co-founder of Convergent), their three boys—including twins—and their wirehaired pointing griffon, Adeline. She is active in church, the local mothers of multiples organization and the myriad of their boys’ activities. On a Saturday, Jennifer might be found baking, trekking off to Minneapolis to catch a musical or theatrical performance, curled up with a book, playing fetch with Adeline or enjoying java and friends at a local coffee shop. Jennifer’s favorite thing about Minnesota is the fabulous theater and music offerings in the Twin Cities area and her bucket list includes visiting Florence Italy to take in all of the Renaissance art. People might not know that she has been vegetarian most of her adult life and is a cancer survivor.

Loni J. Porta, Director of Education

Loni is the director of education at Convergent and has been with the company since 2004. An industry leader in IRA, HSA and retirement plan education, Loni plans, budgets for and builds training and education products and solutions for financial organizations nationwide. Loni also teaches courses in all delivery formats. She has mastered various learning management solutions as well as various online courseware development tools. An avid student of learning styles and adult learning principles, Loni incorporates her skills thoughtfully into Convergent’s training and education products and services.

Loni attended North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND, and came to Convergent after her tenure at Universal Pensions, Inc. (UPI), a nationally recognized retirement consulting and training firm in central MN. At UPI, Loni designed and developed education and instruction in multiple delivery formats and held training manager and consultant positions. She helped design the industry’s first IRA-specific designation program (the American Bankers Association's Certified IRA Services Professional (CISP) program) and NAFCU’s Certified IRA Professional program.

Loni and her husband live in northern Minnesota. On weekends (weather permitting!) you’ll likely find them—often along with their two adult daughters—on one of the many beautiful local lakes in their runabout boat, enjoying the wooded trails and meadows on horseback or four wheelers (including her beloved Yamaha Kodiak), or downhill or cross country skiing. Something most people don’t know about Loni is that one of her life-long dreams is to flip an old home, so that sits high on her bucket list. Not surprisingly, when the TV gets flipped on, she usually settles down to the next episode of This Old House, Love It or List It, or one of many other addictive home improvement offerings.

Julie K. Robinson, CISP, Director of Consulting

Julie is Convergent’s director of consulting and has been with the company since 2006. An industry veteran of over 25 years, Julie tracks legislative and regulatory activity that directly or indirectly impacts retirement plans and HSAs. Julie spends much of her time reviewing federal laws, regulations and pronouncements to ensure all of Convergent’s products are kept up to date and all of Convergent’s clients are kept abreast of the latest changes impacting IRAs, HSAs and business retirement plans. In addition, Julie provides ongoing compliance and operational support to financial organizations—large and small—throughout the country. While it’s difficult to keep track after the first 15 or 20 years, it’s estimated Julie’s fielded well over 50,000 compliance support calls over the years. Due to being the one her colleagues turn to when faced with a seemingly intractable HSA compliance issue, they have crowned her the resident “HSA Queen.”

Julie is a graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN, and came to Convergent after her tenure with Universal Pensions, Inc. (UPI), a nationally recognized retirement consulting and training firm in central MN. At UPI, Julie was a subject matter expert for learning systems and educational programs. In addition, she contributed to a variety of UPI’s publications, including their HSA Compliance and Operations Manual. Julie also instructed training programs and provided compliance support via UPI’s compliance hotline. She holds the Certified IRA Services Professional (CISP) designation from the American Bankers Association.

Julie lives in northern Minnesota with her husband and their son and daughter. On a Saturday, you can probably find her in a hockey arena (even in July), at a soccer field, or volunteering for various organizations. Julie and her family also love to vacation at Disney World, mountain bike on the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Biking Trail and boat on Minnesota’s 11,482 lakes. Something people might not know about Julie is that she did a brief stint when she was a preschooler, starring as herself, on Minneapolis’ syndication of Romper Room and that her bucket list includes working at Disney World, alongside her husband, after retiring from Convergent.

Timothy R. Larsen, Technical Design & Development

Tim has been at Convergent since 2009 and is in charge of web development and other programming. At Convergent, Tim is responsible for the design and functionality of IRAstuff.com and HSAstuff.com, as well as programming tools and applications for Convergent and its clients. He is adept in working with various server environments, PHP, jQuery, HTML5, CSS, AS3, Javascript as well as the Adobe Suite of design tools such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash and more. His experience with a large array of technologies makes him critical to the Convergent team.

Prior to Convergent, Tim was with Universal Pensions, Inc. (UPI), a nationally recognized retirement consulting and training firm in central MN, where he was a web designer. After UPI, Tim transitioned into consulting for business start-ups and freelancing ventures, most notably ChamberMaster, Inc., which started with Tim and a programmer working in a storage room and is now the largest Chamber of Commerce SAS provider in the country.

Tim is a graduate of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, as well as the Minnesota School of Business. He earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting and a diploma in design and multimedia. He was also awarded the “Outstanding Achievement in Visual Art” award from Central Lakes College in Minnesota.

Tim lives in central Minnesota with his son in a house that Tim and his father built. On a Saturday, you’ll likely find Tim exploring something artistic or coming up with new and fun activities to enjoy with his son. Tim’s favorite thing about Minnesota is summertime activities like taking his son fishing and hiking near Itasca State Park. Something people might not know about Tim is that he once celebrated the 4th of July with John Glenn (the first American astronaut to orbit the earth) during Glenn’s tour of Papua, New Guinea, where Tim was living at the time.

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Industry Experience

The financial services industry is awash with individuals and firms claiming to have retirement expertise. In reality, however, this purported expertise often turns out to be "a mile wide and an inch deep." Not so at Convergent. Convergent's team members—who boast an average industry tenure of over 25 years—have an unprecedented level of diverse industry experience gained through decades of hands-on work helping many of the nation's leading financial service organizations with their IRA and business retirement plan initiatives. From helping organizations fine-tune their most pressing compliance and operations details to assisting with the development and rollout of immense, nationwide education and business development campaigns, Convergent's subject matter experts (SMEs) have done it all.

Subject Matter Expertise

Retirement industry professionals understand the complexity and nuance of the country's federal retirement plan laws and regulations—voluminous, riddled with arcane language, undue complexity and innumerable exceptions. What's more, thanks to numerous high-profile regulatory audits and class-action lawsuits, providers are well aware of the risks—both financial and reputational—associated with compliance shortfalls. Often referred to as "the expert's expert," Convergent's team members are subject matter experts (SMEs) in the truest sense of the word. Over the past 25+ years, the senior members of Convergent's team have consulted with literally thousands of retirement industry professionals, helping them to navigate the murky waters of retirement industry compliance.

Proven Methodology

You're unique. We get that. Convergent has been at this long enough to understand that many of your challenges cannot be handled with a cookie-cutter solution. If you're looking for a simple, turnkey solution, don't fret—we've got those. What's more, we've also got you covered if you're looking for something beyond "off-the-shelf." For those seeking a more tailored solution, our time-tested methodology for providing best-in-class custom solutions is based on a single core premise: we listen. We listen carefully to your objectives, your constraints and your priorities.

We then respond with flexible options tailored to your unique situation. Goodbye rigidity, hello flexibility.