The Process Imperative
Since the mid-90s, we have been helping fiduciaries (business owners, plan sponsors, and retirement plan committee members) reduce their personal liability that arises in offering a plan.
Following Department of Labor guidance and best practices like those identified in the brief issued by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College1, we have developed a rigorous, repeatable, documented process.
Our process includes plan design consulting, fee benchmarking, participant services, fiduciary training, IPS creation and maintenance, investment lineup construction and monitoring including as co-fiduciary 3(21) or discretionary 3(38) discretionary fiduciaries.
Quality Plan Designs
Plan design can result in many benefits. Two of our best examples were recommending a profit-sharing design that increased the contribution made to the owners by $50,000 with the ‘spend’ for employees remaining the same, as well as auto-enrollment that increased participation ten-fold.
Fee Benchmarking
The best way to determine if your plan is ‘reasonable’ in cost, as DOL guidance suggests, is to compare your plan to dozens if not hundreds of other plans of similar size. We benchmark our clients’ service provider fees, including our own, on an annual basis. This keeps fees competitive, and results in us lowering our fee over time as plan assets increase.
Educating Participants
A key component of meeting the 404(c) safe-harbor regulations is participant education. We work with our plan sponsors to develop a participant education campaign that is unique and compelling, including a micro-site customized to each plan, on-site and remote lunch-n-learn meetings, and complimentary, no-obligation financial planning.
Best-of-Breed Investments
We have been providing 3(21) and 3(38) fiduciary services long before it was popular. Our plan lineups are free of revenue sharing, include a top-performing QDIA, and represent a curated combination of high quality, low-cost active and passive funds, resulting in benefits that accrue to both our plan sponsors and participants alike.
1 - 401(k) Lawsuits: What are the causes and consequeces?
Center for Retirement Research at Boston College - By George S. Mellman and Geoffrey T. Sanzenbacher