Capabilities
Let us get to know your organization. Our mission is to protect you as a fiduciary and free up your time so that together we can help your company and employees reach their peak.
Fiduciary Oversight & Consulting
Fiduciaries have important responsibilities because they act on behalf of all plan participants and their beneficiaries. Adherence to these responsibilities are monitored by the DOL and potentially employees through civil litigation.
We will help you implement a disciplined process to document your fiduciary due diligence and we will acknowledge our role as an investment fiduciary in writing. Every meeting will be documented by an agenda and will have formal meeting minutes, all of which will be stored in a Fiduciary File.
Administration Best Practices
For an HR professional managing the day-to-day responsibilities of your company’s retirement program - amidst all of the other employee issues - can be daunting. However, it is the most critical function to avoid costly fines and to engage your employees.
By taking the time to get to know your HR people and systems, we will work with you to automate the day-to-day operations through technology and work-flows and fill in the gaps with customized employee communications and resources.
Fee Monitoring & Negotiation
Making sure your employees are “paying only reasonable fees” is one of the core fiduciary functions. Unfortunately, many fiduciaries don’t even know what those fees are and employees are rightfully becoming more educated and vigilant.
As part of our regular fiduciary reviews, we will monitor the fees associated with your retirement plan and make sure they are transparent and fair. As an independent consultant, we have leverage to negotiate fees with providers on your behalf to help minimize cost without sacrificing service.
Investment Due Diligence & Recommendations
Monitoring and deciding which investments to include in your company’s retirement plan is a core fiduciary function that requires you to act in a “prudent” manner.
We are able to be the designated fiduciary for your retirement plan investments on either a non-discretionary 3(21) or discretionary 3(38) basis. Our investment due diligence process includes the development of an Investment Policy Statement (IPS) and a disciplined process for scoring funds vs. the IPS criteria to determine if they need to be put on a watch-list or replaced. Extra care will be applied to the selection or recommendation of your plan’s default investment alternative to make sure it meets the unique needs of your employees based on demographics and other considerations.
Plan Design Consulting
The rules established in your plan document affect all aspects of the plan and should be aligned with your organization’s internal objectives, financial and administrative capabilities. To us, a successful plan can help your company recruit, motivate and retain employees while staying within your benefits budget and encouraging employees to be proactive about saving for their future.
We can provide a customized Competitive Analysis Report to compare your plan to your competitors. Additionally, we will apply the latest research in behavioral finance to help you optimize your eligibility, employer match, profit sharing, vesting schedules, etc. to control the cost of employer funding while motivating employees to save for their retirement.
Employee Education & Wellness
Our financial education and wellness programs seek to help employees better understand money matters so that they feel more confident and empowered. We customize the delivery and content to your group to include in-person workshops, on-demand videos and one-on-one education.