Plan Operations

Managing and monitoring the
operational efficiency of your plan

The work we do for clients extends far beyond investment reviews.  We work with you on your plan as a whole to ensure plans are compliant, consistent with compensation philosophy, and continually improving.

  • Administrative Oversight
    As part of our Annual Fiduciary Program, we hold an administrative review and strategy in the first quarter to ensure that all required compliance items are completed. This meeting's goal is to cover items that do not require action from the full committee beyond notice that they were completed. It also provides the opportunity to review the vendor's participant education and communication strategy and develop strategic goals for the full committee to review.
    There are three areas of review for the meeting:
    • Plan Administration
    • Vendor Update
    • Strategic Goals

    Download an overview of our Annual Fiduciary Program.
  • Plan Design
    Addressing the reasons for sponsoring your plan is essential for structuring it appropriately to meet those objectives. We work with you to define your plan’s purpose and design it accordingly, for example:
    • How does it fit within your total compensation philosophy?
    • Will it be used for employee retention or as a talent incentivization tool?
    • Would you like for it to be competitive versus others in your industry?
    • Are you considering it a mechanism for tax-efficient savings?
    This ensures that the plan effectively meets your objectives while enhancing participant outcomes.
  • Employee Communications
    Each year, we evaluate the plan's employee communication and education strategy. We help our clients ensure their communication and education strategies:
    • Deliver clear, customized information
    • Enhance understanding and participation
    • Foster a financially secure workforce
  • Plan Forward
    Our Plan Forward strategy is designed to continually enhance your plan over time—never allowing ourselves to just “go through the motions.” We build on the foundation built from our Annual Fiduciary Program, ensuring continuous improvement each year. This proactive approach enhances your plan annually, positioning participants better for retirement each year.

Fiduciary Resources
resources

Alongside our services designed to assist plan sponsors with their fiduciary responsibilities, we create and share resources throughout the year to help you manage the challenges associated with your retirement plan benefit programs.

 

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Retirement Plan Committee Best Practices
Each time the retirement plan committee meets, does it feel like there is a new rule or legislation your plan is required to comply with? At the same time, participants are demanding more of you and your organization to be successful because the defined contribution plan is likely the only savings vehicle these individuals will ever have for retirement? If these feelings resonate with you, so will the committee best practices we discuss in this guide.
Download the guide.

technical services case study Plan Design and Oversight Client Case Study
This case study spotlights our retirement plan review process. The goal of this is to improve investment performance, reduce plan expenses and improve participant outcomes. The employer’s leadership team recognized that this was a process that would impact both their oversight committee and their employees but knew that changes and improvements could be made. When it comes to 401(k) and 403(b) retirement plan governance, incremental change is often required to achieve the desired outcome. That was the case with this plan as there were several steps occurring over several years as our team and the plan sponsor worked to have a more modern retirement plan.
Download our plan design and oversight case study.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do you assist defined contribution plan clients evaluate their plan design and its effectiveness?

Each year, we evaluate the plan demographics and the plan's employee communication and education strategy. Based on this review, we can determine where there are opportunities to improve the plan's success in meeting its objectives and whether plan design solutions (automatic enrollment, automatic escalation, etc.) or communication and education strategies can have the greatest impact. We can also review the demographics of the plan relative to the new financial wellness services to determine whether they would be a good fit for your participants.

Q: What plan design change initiatives have you led with your clients in the past 24 months?

In the past 24 months, we have worked with clients on several plan design initiatives. Those include: Completed a plan design change that included employer contribution changes and re-enrollment for a client looking to reduce the employer non-elective and employee mandatory contributions. This was motivated by their goal to incentive more employee participation. We worked with a client to cut the employer's non-elective contribution and added a 100% match on the first 5%. We also implemented an auto-enroll at 5%. This client was looking to reduce their employer non-elective and employee mandatory contributions while also incentivizing more employee participation. Our client wanted to replace their complex 403(b) and 401(a) plans with a more simple 401(k) structure that encouraged higher participant savings rates. To assist them with this goal, we helped the client understand the regulatory complexity of the plan types and modeled the different match and auto-enroll structures for their consideration. We also reviewed the viability of a gradual sunset of current retirement programs. We helped a client implement dual eligibility, with an immediate entry for deferrals and a safe harbor match after six months. This client's goal was to have their employees enroll in the plan on the first day of employment but also offer a match after they had been contributing for a while. For a client who expressed a goal of having more plan participation, we helped them implement auto-enroll at 3% and auto-escalation up to 10% (one percent per year until the 10). Our client had three entities within a shared ownership group. Each had its own retirement plan, and the ownership group wanted to simplify their retirement benefit by having one plan for all three entities. We implemented one single plan under the main entity, with multiple participating employers (being the other two entities). This reduced the overall admin costs by 2/3.

Our team helps manage your plan as a whole to ensure plans are compliant, consistent with compensation philosophy, and continually improving.

Erik Daley

Erik Daley, CFA

Managing Principal

Hailey Fields_360px

Hailey Fields

Director of Client Services

Breion Rollins_360px

Breion Rollins

Consulant

Greg Johnson_360px

Greg Johnson

Senior Consultant and Director of Technical Services

To contact one of our team members,
or to learn more about our vendor and plan management capabilities,
fill out the form below.

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