Ongoing and Annual Plan Services
Individual Investment Education
(At discretion of plan sponsor)
Do you have access to resources to help your participants with those difficult questions about the best way to manage their retirement assets? When your employees change jobs or retire, they often face complex financial decisions. When your participants have questions about appropriate ways to manage their retirement assets, they will often ask difficult questions. We are willing to support you. As an added benefit to plan participants, we can, at your discretion, be available for one-on-one investment education meetings. Providing an opportunity for your employees to sit down with a financial advisor who takes the time to understand the big picture shows your employees that you care. At your employees’ request and at no cost to your company or employees, we can provide an overall financial planning consultation that will allow participants to ask questions and receive education related to their specific personal financial plan. Topics that we can discuss with your employees include:
- Development of a “Strategic Life Plan”
- College planning
- Lifestage planning
Conducting On-Site Investment Education
(At discretion of plan sponsor)
Can a retirement benefit increase your employees’ loyalty? As the competition for hiring qualified employees and the demands of maintaining employees’ work-life balance often becomes increasingly difficult, being able to provide new non-traditional employee benefits becomes more and more valuable. As employees’ compensation increases, so do their financial planning needs; as a result, an employee’s financial education needs may extend beyond questions regarding enrollment, participation, and asset allocation. For instance, employees struggle through challenges such as paying for their children’s education. What will you do if an employee asks you for suggestions to help cope with the rising costs of college education?
Monitoring of Communication Plan
Has your communication plan evolved to reflect the changes in your employees’ needs and demographics? As your company and employees change, we can provide objective education to ensure that your communication plan continues to meet the needs of your plan and employees.
Conducting Re-enrollment Meetings
Raising employee awareness about the plan’s benefits shouldn’t only occur during a plan’s implementation or conversion. Whether they are participating or not, your employees need a better understanding of how to maximize your plan’s benefits. We can work closely with you to not only assess your plan’s need for re-enrollment meetings but also coordinate and deliver the meetings. The potential benefit to the plan can be valuable:
- Increasing employee awareness of plan benefits
- Suggesting options to maximize participation
- Providing information to help increase deferrals
- Helping participants explore appropriate asset allocation
Plan Sponsor Service Support / Problem Resolution
How valuable is one-stop accountability to you? We can work with you during the initial transition and conversion periods and will be your local objective representative should you require support in resolving problems. We can also represent your interests as an advocate in interactions with plan providers and record keepers.
Investment Policy Statement Support
When was the last time you reviewed your plan’s investment options? As set forth in your investment policy statement, we can provide objective information for your investment reviews to ensure that your plan’s investment options meet the criteria described in your investment policy statement. If your plan’s investment options fail to meet your agreed upon criteria, we can provide information to help you explore alternative and appropriate investment options. Furthermore, as your company’s plan evolves, we can help you in updating your plan’s formal investment policy statement so it reflects and documents any change to your plan’s investment policy.
Conduct Annual Review
Do you have the time to effectively analyze how your retirement plan is doing in regards to factors such as total asset size, asset allocation, participation, and how each of these factors affect important issues such as the pricing of your plan? We can sit down with you at least once a year to provide insight to help you analyze specific plan information, suggest tools to help you maximize participation, increase deferrals, and improve asset allocation. We can also use this opportunity to ensure that you are receiving the best value while maintaining a high level of service and benefits.
Monitor Industry Trends and Communicate to the Plan Sponsor
After a long day negotiating projects and resolving customer conflicts, wouldn’t it be nice to know that someone is looking out for your interests? We can provide this by keeping you up to date on the latest developments in the retirement plan marketplace and retirement industry trends. Making sure that you are aware how these trends can affect your plan can be one of the important services that can provide to you.
Monitoring Provider / Program Changes and Communicating to Plan Sponsor
Technology and a competitive environment continue to compel service providers to enhance their programs. We can make sure that you are aware of any service provider and program changes that affect your plan, as well as provide information aimed at making sure your plan maximizes the benefits