Retirement Plan Services

We provide comprehensive and ongoing guidance, training, and support to mitigate potential liabilities. We tailor our advice to your unique needs.

Plan fiduciaries must act as prudent experts under ERISA and are therefore held to a high standard of care with respect to plan-related decisions regarding investments, service providers, plan administration, and general ERISA compliance issues.

Most prudent plan sponsors hire a financial professional to help them adhere to ERISA’s rigorous standards and to meet their objective of offering a best-practices retirement plan to their employees. ERISA rules are clear — every decision you make as a fiduciary must be in the best interests of plan participants and their beneficiaries.

By tailoring our advice to the unique needs of our clients, we are able to help you create retirement benefits for your employees that are truly designed for you. As your co-fiduciary, we partner our plan sponsors to ensure they take a best practices approach to all 4 areas of fiduciary responsibility:

• Management of plan operations
• Investment selection and monitoring
• Service provider selection and monitoring
• Participant communication and education

Proper documentation is a must for plan fiduciaries. Our best practices approach will help make sure your i’s are dotted and your t’s are crossed.

Using our proprietary fund ranking system alongside third-party ranking systems, we select investments to enhance outcomes, manage risk, and reduce fiduciary exposure.

Many plan sponsors struggle with deciding how many investment options to offer in their retirement plans. While people generally like to have lots of options when making other decisions, having too many plan options can potentially lead to poor investment decisions by plan participants. In addition, increasing plan options can also increase plan costs, as well as the administrative paperwork associated with the plan.

As your investment co-fiduciary, we ensure our clients monitor and maintain their investment menu according to their investment policy. Through regular monitoring and reporting, plan sponsors can meet their responsibilities to:

• Offer diversified investment options
• Follow the Investment Policy Statement (IPS)
• Use a consistent, documented approach to investment option removal
• Document discussions, decisions, and outcomes

Our proprietary fund ranking system aims to enhance outcomes, manage risks, and reduce fiduciary exposure.

We utilize an RFP-driven process to ensure apples-to-apples comparisons and to help maximize negotiating leverage to keep service provider costs reasonable.

According to plan sponsors, one of the most harrowing aspects of their fiduciary obligations is to ensure that plan fees are reasonable. From administration and recordkeeping to compliance and investment management—how can a plan sponsor feel assured that they are aware of all plan fees, understand them thoroughly, and then determine that they are fair and reasonable? It’s quite a task! As the prevalence of lawsuits against plan sponsors for allowing excessive fee charges continues to increase, the importance of conducting regular benchmarking studies is more important than ever.

As your dedicated financial professional, we are uniquely qualified, and proud, to undergo this complex task for you so that you feel confident in meeting your fiduciary obligation to ensure your plan fees are fair and reasonable. High fees can have a huge impact on ending balances, eroding the benefits that you are wisely taking advantage of.

We become the liaison to the plan’s service providers by managing vendor relationships with a goal of minimizing complexity and reducing administrative burdens.

We help our clients find their perfect match through live-bid RFPs and benchmarking. Our benchmarking report utilizes our proprietary database of 100+ recordkeepers and includes 500 data points covering recordkeeping, compliance, technology, communication, and investment services. The report features side-by-side comparisons of both costs and services to isolate differences in total plan costs, net recordkeeping costs, net investment management costs, investment quality rankings, and service differentiators.

Live-bid RFP responses are based on your plan’s parameters, complexity, investment lineup, service requirements, and other unique considerations. This process ensures:

• Apple-to-apple comparisons are used throughout
• Fee comparisons are based on current market prices rather than a database of historical fees
• Negotiating leverage is maximized with a plan’s current provider

Our solutions and expertise are matched only by our personal commitment to each client’s goals.

We help design retirement plans that strive to increase an employer’s benefit return on investment (ROI) while enhancing participant outcomes.

One size does not fit all when it comes to retirement plans. As your advisor, we can help you determine the design that can maximize your contributions and minimize your tax liabilities.

We remain committed to staying abreast of the latest resources, trends, and legislative developments so that we can help empower you and your employees to effectively plan and prepare for retirement.

We are experts in advanced plan design analysis and implementation including cross-tested profit-sharing plans, cash balance plans, employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) and deferred compensation plans.

Our goal is to provide you the tools and resources that can help you build and maintain a successful plan for your employees.

We assign a strategic advisor to each of our retirement plans providing a financial planning resource for your employees.

According to a recent study by Fidelity, financial planning resources is one of the top 5 attraction and retention benefits for employers seeking to retain top talent.

CFP® professionals have met extensive training and experience requirements, and commit to the CFP Board’s ethical standards that require them to put their clients’ interests first. That’s why partnering with a CFP® professional gives consumers confidence today and a more secure tomorrow.

CFP® professionals take a holistic, personalized approach to bring all the pieces of your financial life together. As part of the CFP® certification, CFP® professionals also have made a commitment to the CFP Board to act as a fiduciary when providing financial advice to a client. This means they have agreed to put your employees’ best interests first, so they can provide them with confidence today and a more secure tomorrow.

Our advisors provide key analysis on retirement readiness so your employees can confidently pursue their retirement goals.

• A retirement gap analysis helps individuals identify potential shortfalls between how much they have saved and what they will need in retirement.
• Tallying all accounts, projecting ahead, then comparing that amount to how much a fully funded retirement costs, given your unique circumstances, can help people bridge the financial gap between the present and retirement. It’s a great way to visualize how you are tracking towards your retirement goals.
• Online resources offered through our platform providers are useful, and working with one of our experienced financial planners can help you see any retirement gaps and then take steps to reduce them.

We customize in-person or virtual education sessions designed to improve financial fluency and wellness of your staff.

Our team provides simple, yet practical and easy-to-apply financial basics to participants. We go beyond plan-only education with engaging and diverse topics:

• Gap analysis
• Mutual Funds
• Retirement plan basics
• Diversification & asset allocation
• Smart budgeting
• Traditional 401(k) vs. Roth

We provide insights and resources for your employees to utilize their benefit to its fullest potential through regular communications and check-ins.

The Diagnosti(k) is customized around your specific 401(k) plan and offers an in-depth look into your plan’s administration, compliance, investments, fees, liabilities, and plan design. It will give you and your team a sense of just how well your retirement benefits stack up with your competitors and peers as well as uncover any potential opportunities for improvement.