The success of any retirement plan is measured by the success of its participants. Unfortunately, many employees are not saving enough and their accounts are not appropriately allocated. Our goal is to help every employee understand the value of their retirement plan and maximize it’s potential to help them achieve a successful outcome.

• Develop a communication and education program focused on providing support and improving retirement outcomes.

• Deliver education through group, one-on-one consultations, live and virtual meetings. All tailored to your organization's objectives and unique employee demographics.

• Assist in drafting clear, concise, constructive and effective employee communications about plan details, financial education and activities.

• Analyze various employee metrics on an annual basis to monitor our collective impact and identify potential education opportunities or plan improvements.

Fiduciary standards have been characterized as the “highest known to law.” With most retirement plans, senior executives, certain Human Resource professionals and retirement plan committee members are considered plan fiduciaries and may be subject to personal liability.

• Educate fiduciaries on their roles and responsibilities.

• Implement policies and plan governance procedures.

• Prepare meeting summaries and deliverables to help ensure proper documentation of all fiduciary decisions.

• Deliver an annual Fiduciary Plan Review to continually monitor plan details and operations.

Understanding the fees within a retirement plan can be daunting. Although there have been improvements in fee-transparency, complexity remains. Yet, fiduciaries are responsible for having a full understanding of the fees charged and ensuring they are commensurate to the services provided.

• Provide a clear and concise breakdown of your total plan fees each year, benchmark them against industry averages and metrics, and document the results.

• Identify and implement methods that may reduce plan costs without sacrificing the quality of products and services.

• Renegotiate with service providers on your behalf to help ensure economies-of-scale are realized for a growing retirement plan.

• Coordinate with providers to maximize their service offerings, such as technology integration, meetings, and education.

Whether your goal is to increase participation, improve compliance oversight, or maximize benefits for key employees, plan design can make a tremendous impact on the success or your retirement plan.

• Provide an in-depth analysis of plan design including our recommendations and how to implement.

• Ensure critical components such as eligibility, employer contribution formulas, distribution rules, automatic enrollment, and others are aligned with the plan’s objectives and employee demographics.

• Proactively review plan design and its effectiveness during our Fiduciary Plan Review.

Proper investment oversight is not only a critical fiduciary requirement, but it can also play an important role in employee engagement and retirement outcomes.

• Design an Investment Policy Statement (IPS.)

• Design an investment menu that will minimize employee confusion, while maximizing engagement and success.

• Employ an advanced risk-based suitability process to identify a “best-fit” target date fund series for your plan.

Choosing a provider / recordkeeper and TPA is in itself a fiduciary action. Demographics, service needs, and plan size are critical factors in finding the right fit at the right cost. As your plan grows, the ideal provider several years ago, may not be ideal today.

• Initial review and benchmark of current provider.

• Periodically market test plan provider via Request for Proposal.

• Serve as a liaison between plan sponsor and provider to manage relationship.

Administrative responsibilities associated with retirement plans can be overwhelming for Human Resources and Payroll. We can assist in this area by optimizing plan design and efficiently leveraging service providers and their technology.

• Review current admin processes, payroll and plan service providers available technology.

• Provide recommendations to enhance efficiency of current retirement plan admin processes.

• Educate and train admin staff, as needed.