Sarah Schmitz brings more than 25 years of retirement plan and employee benefits experience to her work with small and mid-sized employers. As a Senior Corporate Retirement Plan Advisor based in Denver and Phoenix, she focuses on expanding Balefire’s Corporate Solutions presence throughout the Rocky Mountain and Southwest regions while helping employers build retirement and benefit programs informed by practices often associated with much larger organizations.
Sarah’s career has given her a 360-degree perspective on workplace retirement plans. She has worked across three distinct sides of the retirement plan relationship: as a plan provider, as Benefits Manager for a Fortune 500 employer, and as a consultant with a national firm. Her corporate benefits experience gave her firsthand exposure to sophisticated plan design, governance, fiduciary processes, and employee education. Her consulting work across Colorado and Arizona further broadened her understanding of the needs facing different employers and workforces.
She complements that experience with extensive industry credentials, including the C(k)P®, CEBS®, RPA, and CBP designations, as well as Series 7, 66, 24, and 51 licenses. Together, her experience and technical background allow her to examine retirement and benefit programs from the perspectives of the employer, provider, consultant, and participant.
Sarah is particularly skilled at connecting those perspectives. Employers rely on her to assess whether their retirement plans are serving both organizational and employee needs, balance benefit costs with participant value, and strengthen fiduciary processes. Her areas of expertise include 401(k) and qualified retirement plan design and oversight, fiduciary risk management, employee benefit strategy, financial education, and ongoing support for HR and finance teams.
Her approach is grounded in making sophisticated retirement plan practices practical and sustainable for small and mid-sized organizations. She believes employers should not need Fortune 500 resources to provide thoughtful plan governance, meaningful employee education, and well-designed benefits.
At Balefire, Sarah is responsible for developing relationships with centers of influence and prospective plan sponsors while strengthening the firm’s retirement plan footprint across her markets. Her work supports Balefire Corporate Solutions’ broader approach of combining participant education, fiduciary guidance, plan design, and high-touch service to help employers better serve their people.
Sarah splits her time between Arizona and Colorado. Outside of work, she enjoys tennis, pickleball, Orange Theory Fitness, and finding the best concert venue to see Old Dominion with her significant other. Sarah is an avid supporter of USA Swimming, American WTA & ATP tennis players, the Arizona Wildcats (BEAR DOWN!), Caitlin Clark, and March Madness. Her favorite “cool down” is going for a walk with her very special cream labradoodle, Shasta!