Case Studies
Our team is uniquely suited to work with you to achieve your goals. Check out some of our results below:
Growing Company
- $12 Million Plan
- Some turnover but quickly reaching 100+ employees
- They had a generous plan that didn't get the employee appreciation it should have for a variety of reasons including lack of choice, lack of education and lack of usable interface.
- There was no true partner for employee support.
- They has no clear process for fiduciary review including ongoing plan design, investment selection/deselection and education.
We significantly reduced the overall fees and added compliance services. We were also able to delay the need for an annual audit by identifying an opportunity and helping them remove termed employees with balances under $5,000. This saved the company time and saved the $8,000-$15,000 annual audit expense. We reassigned many of the tasks HR was previously performing by themselves (i.e. loans, distributions, beneficiary tracking, notices). Current employee participation and appreciation increased with an extremely well attended open enrollment meeting. Additionally, we provided on boarding materials and direct support to increase employee appreciation of the generous plan design.
Large Plan
- $60 Million Plan
- 450 employees with national and international presence
- They were nervous about their fiduciary liabilities.
- They wanted to review whether they were taking full advantage of plan design and advanced planning opportunities for executive leadership and key employees.
- They had corrections on prior year's audit.
- They wanted to know how to better leverage their partners. For example, translation services and multi-lingual materials.
- They wanted to know what additional services they could get with no additional cost
Immediately, the existing recordkeeper reduced their pricing. We had the existing recordkeeper come to present on all that was available for plan participants. And, what the recordkeeper could do to reduce the amount of time spent by those administering the Plan. We kept the agenda for the meeting and followed through on all action items. We updated the Investment Policy Statement and outdated Investment Committee Charter and organized records into a fiduciary folder. We quantified what a profit sharing plan design change would mean and compared this to non-qualified deferred compensation options to help attract and retain top talent. This gave them everything they needed to make a decision and we implemented the plan and continue to monitor and review this additional incentive plan.
School
- $22 Million 403(b) Plan and a Defined Benefit Program
- The school felt stuck and that their plan needed to be modernized.
- They couldn't figure out what the new regulations required of them.
- They were nervous about the work and disruption involved in an update.
- They didn't feel their faculty and staff understood or appreciated all the components of their employer sponsored retirement plan benefit.
We helped them successfully transitioned to a new provider. We shared a detailed timeline which outlined roles and responsibilities so they knew what to expect each step of the way. This effort was well worth it and it significantly cut down what it takes to administer the plan now. We reduced fees and increased investment choice. This also improved the web user experience for both plan sponsor and plan participants. The plan sponsor can now see the status of the plan and make data usable for our education and communication campaigns. We teamed with experts to quickly bring the plan documents and design into compliance. We educated the team on fiduciary best practices to mitigate liability. We continue to meet with employees in group setting and one-on-one sessions to show the full retirement benefit available to them and answer any questions.
Non-Profit
- $3 Million 403(b) Plan
- They asked us to review the plan because they felt they had fallen behind. They never had the bandwidth to focus on the plan management.
- They couldn't add any work to their plate.
- They were really concerned about the rising costs of all benefits for their employees but couldn't really take on more expenses at the company level.
- They wanted to make sure their 403(b) Plan was competitively priced and that the plan design truly helped their employees.
Results
We found they didn't have a Qualified Default Investment Alternative (QDIA) which overwhelmed and intimidates participants when it came to picking investments. They were not compliant with ERISA 404(c). Both were a simple update. Their investment expenses were very high. They had never understood how they were priced and couldn't ever figure out to total expense. We were able to update the share class to reduce the expenses and make it more clear. The recordkeeping fee could be negotiated down without even needing to change providers. They were not fully leveraging the employee education services provided. They were also pleasantly surprised that some of the things they thought they needed to be doing they could have their partners to take care of.