INSTITUTIONAL RETIREMENT PLANNING
- Whether your institution is starting a new plan or has an existing plan, we provide customized options to help meet your company’s retirement planning needs.
- We partner with businesses, plan sponsors, charities, foundations, and endowments to navigate the nuances of an ever-changing regulatory environment. We proactively monitor the laws relating to retirement plan and pension administration to stay ahead of potential legislative changes.
- Our specialized knowledge allows us to assist you in evaluating all aspects of your plan including: enrollments, disclosures, deferral changes, deposits, distributions, loans, hardship withdrawals, account reconciliation, reporting, investment selection, investment monitoring, and the hiring of other service providers.

Existing Plans
- We serve existing retirement plans, not-for-profit organizations, and other corporate asset pools by offering consulting, planning, and fiduciary services. We partner with you to provide oversight and advice regarding plan compliance, fiduciary liability, plan assets, and investment options.
- Our goal is to achieve a successful retirement plan for all parties. For the plan sponsor, this means improving the ease of administration while also offering guidance to continually improve the plan’s features. We also seek to help ensure the plan succeeds in providing the plan participants with a secure retirement.
- We will review the design of your plan to ensure that it meets its stated goals. Your current needs, such as attracting or retaining employees, may differ from the original reason the plan was created (to provide the owner a tax-advantaged way to save for retirement).
- Many plans lack crucial documentation detailing its design and procedures that can expose plan sponsors to liability. Our services can include a review of all plan documents so that the proper steps are taken to remedy any deficiencies. We provide support with special plan correction projects, plan terminations, and IRS and DOL audits.
- We will scrutinize every plan fee to ensure each service provider is being appropriately compensated relative to the services provided. We also review and advise you on other options and features available to your plan. Many plans do not utilize desirable features that can be added to the plan at no additional cost.
- We conduct an annual meeting with you to assess the plan and participant involvement. This assessment provides us with feedback on areas that need improvement and the topics that interest the participants and non-participants.
- In addition to identifying desirable features available to you, we offer a secure, personalized website for each participant that requests it. This personalized website provides information on investment performance and research. The website has an account aggregation feature that gives participants access to their net worth and a more complete view of their total asset allocation. The website allows for document storage and access to administrative forms. The website also includes a budgeting tool that the participant can use to further improve and monitor their progress in achieving their financial goals.
- We will also want to ensure your plan has an appropriate Qualified Default Investment Alternative so that less active participants are automatically invested in the proper fund.

New Plans
- To help institutions considering adding a plan, we perform a comprehensive analysis of your business goals to identify if a retirement plan fits your needs. This goal-based analysis ensures we provide a customized plan tailored to the specific needs of your institution. We advise you between the various types of retirement plans including 401(k) Profit Sharing Plans, Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), Money Purchase Pension plans, new comparability plans, Defined Benefit plans, and Cash Balance plans.
- Our process begins with a thorough plan design process followed by step-by-step assistance in the implementation of the plan. We remain involved in the day-to-day administration of the selected plan(s). Our in-depth support extends to banking, record keeping, the preparation of participant statements, and Third Party Administration best practices.
- We recommend that you utilize the lowest-cost share class available to participants under the plan to minimize fees.
- We simplify the design and implementation process by advising you on whether to incorporate features such as an employer match, auto-enrollment, auto-escalation, participant tools, and statements. Our continued assistance gives you the support and the tools to make running your plan easy.
- Depending on the specifics of your plan, there are still many tasks the need attention after your plan is up and running to ensure an optimal plan experience. Our services allow you to focus on running your business. Our involvement helps alleviate the burden of maintaining compliance with Department of Labor (DOL) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulation requirements. We continue to support you through the reoccurring tasks such as compliance testing, annual valuation, annual Discrimination Testing, annual accounting, allocating assets, asset reconciliation, managing employee census data, processing distribution requests, loan processing, employer contribution calculations, and the preparation of annual returns and forms.
- We not only assist you as the plan sponsor, but we also focus on helping the plan participants. We can provide ongoing and comprehensive education through a measurable, objective-based communication program to raise the level of retirement readiness for all employees participating in the retirement plan.
- We hold at least annual employee educational and enrollment meetings for the retirement plans we manage. We also provide interested plan participants with personalized web portal access to provide them additional financial planning resources.