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Imagine a world where you never had to bill your clients, your fees drip into your bank account in daily increments that no one sees, and your revenue continues to grow while your service model stays the same.  Welcome to the world of revenue sharing and basis point pricing in retirement plans!

One common problem with plan management is correctly providing required notices to participants on a timely basis. There are many notice requirements, depending on what activity is occurring within your plan, and notice requirements can be particularly tricky when you have terminated employees who are still participants in the plan. Notably, there can be substantial civil penalties or the loss of certain plan protections if participants receive late notices or none at all.

Most plan sponsors today use a prototype plan document that is provided by their record-keeper or third party administrator (“TPA”). Typically the prototype document come in two parts: the base document which contains the standard language for the plan that cannot be changed and the adoption agreement that allows for the many provisions that can be elected to customize the plan to suit each employer’s needs.

The directive from the Department of Labor couldn’t be any more explicit. The expectations they have of you, as a plan sponsor or fiduciary to a retirement plan, is that you have a “prudent process” and that the process is “well documented.” Simple enough! However, this is one of the most significant weaknesses we see in how most fiduciaries manage their retirement plans. There is little or no identifiable process, minimal documentation if any, or even worse, a document laying out a process that is not followed.

Most plan sponsors have a Swiss cheese approach to plan management. The more plan reviews we do, the more we have come to understand the number of holes in plan management that exist throughout the marketplace. Poor plan management is sad because it often robs plan participants of the opportunity to secure a comfortable retirement and leaves plan fiduciaries’ personal assets exposed to considerable liability.

Helping employees save adequately for retirement is a worthy goal. Group education, online resources, saving calculators. The tools are there, but retirement plan participants continue to struggle with visualizing their future retirement income needs and the income their savings will produce. One-on-one meetings to visual answer these questions and build strategies to close the gap between savings and income empower participants in ways traditional retirement education has failed.

We’re glad you’re here, and we invite you to come back again and again to find out what’s on our minds. We encourage you to peruse our pages to know our team better and to see what we offer you as an individual or as part of our business services.

Any time you have questions, please give us a call at 585-340-5200.

We’re ready to partner with you.