Employer Sponsored Retirement Plans

What goals are set for your retirement plan?
Generally, the goal of a retirement plan is to help employees get retirement ready. Do you know if your plan is helping employees achieve that goal? We help you assess your current retirement plan to determine:

• If your plan is currently successful.
• If your plan is aligned with your goals.
• Changes that can help improve the success of the retirement plan.
• A strategy to help minimize the amount of time you and your staff spend maintaining the plan.
   

Who helps with your fiduciary due diligence? Do you have a documented process in place?
Most plan sponsors are focused on running their business, they’re generally not experts on their fiduciary responsibilities. They may believe their service provider is handling it. We help with formal, documented support through a fiduciary file, investment policy statement and more to help mitigate risk and satisfy due diligence requirements.
 

Do you have a fee policy statement and review process in place?
It’s important to document guidelines for managing and allocating fees and expenses and to consider whether the fees and expenses are reasonable. It can feel a bit daunting, but we can help. 

• Outline the repeatable, documented process for evaluating plan fees and expenses.
• Simplify and streamline the documentation process.
• Show the plan fiduciary understands their responsibilities.

Do you have an investment policy statement and review process in place?
This is a fiduciary best practice, but many organizations don’t have an investment policy statement or a review process. We help establish an investment policy statement that provides guidelines concerning your various types of investment management responsibilities.
 

Do you have an education policy in place? Do you review it often and measure its effectiveness?
An employee education policy statement can document goals and accountabilities related to an employee education program and provide a baseline for discussing employee education. Having a policy is important, but it’s also important to make sure it’s working the way it should be. We help establish, review and monitor it. 
 

How much time are you spending on the plan?
Many plan sponsors would like to spend most of their time running their business – not on administrative duties related to the plan. We help with your retirement plan needs, such as:

• Investment lineup and management³
• Plan design³
• Risk management
• Participant communication and education
• Plan compliance testing and government reporting

What services are you and your employees getting, and what are you paying for them? 
It’s important to evaluate the total amount paid to all service providers for an employer’s retirement program. And it’s important for plan sponsors to consider the level and quality of services of each provider as well as the impact on their own employee resources. We walk you through that.

What types of investment options does your plan offer?
A plan could offer a mixture of:

• Mutual funds
• Separate accounts
• Guaranteed investment contracts (GICs)
• Stable value funds
• Employer stock
• Custom funds
• Collective investment trusts (CITs)

It is a prudent fiduciary action to monitor the investment options the plan offers. The monitoring process should formalize a procedure to review and monitor performance of the investment options and align with the goals of the plan’s investment policy statement (IPS). 

• We help employees that have access to 403(b) and 457 plans understand their options.
  
• With access to multiple financial companies that offer these plans, we can help employers set up new plans and add new vendors to current plans.
  
• Principal and Orion Portfolio Solutions are our key partners offering 403(b) and 457 plans.
  
• We can provide an analysis of your account to determine the level of investment risk in your current portfolio.