5 Essentials for a Better Retirement Plan

The most common complaints of company retirement plan sponsors are poor quality service, confusing investment options, and low employee participation. Wouldn’t you prefer a relationship with a firm that offers advice and counsel on the plan, reports fees transparently, offers easy-to-understand diversified investment options, and helps encourage your employees to participate in the plan?

At The Family Wealth Consulting Group, we are offering a better solution for plan sponsors and participants. We provide a consultative approach toward plan design and management. Our goal is to maximize the value of each plan to employers and employees, and provide fiduciary protection for employers, while making the plan very easy to use!

Our plans are based on the Five Retirement Plan Essentials.

1. Transfer Your Liability Risk to an ERISA 3(38) Fiduciary

  • Working with an ERISA 3(38) fiduciary, as our plans for provide for, significantly reduces your liability on the plan. As a plan sponsor without an ERISA 3(38) fiduciary, you can be sued for failing to meet your fiduciary responsibilities on the plan, and you have enough to worry about without failing to transfer risk away whenever possible. Don’t make the mistake of being fooled by other less comprehensive solutions—insist on an ERISA 3(38) fiduciary.

2. Provide Prudent Portfolios

  • Most plans offer an abbreviated list of high-cost investment options, and employers are forced to leave employees on their own to select what most often turn out to be a very expensive, very poorly performing portfolio. Most of America’s saving is happening in these very plans—so why do substandard investing? We offer simple, pre-selected, low-cost portfolios that are easy for you and your employees to understand. Our investment approach is guided by 80+ years of Nobel Prize-winning research, and we’ll consult with you on the plan design and help and your employees understand your investing options.

3. Insist on Transparent Fees

  • As a retirement plan trustee, you have a legal obligation to know and understand all fees. Most retirement plans don’t work because of lack of fee clarity. Plan participants have no idea how much they pay in fees. Many plans have hidden fees that are buried under layers of red tape. Not only that, but revenue sharing, pay to play fund platforms (12b-1 fees), Sub TA fees, “Finder’s fees” and incentive fees can all lead to excessive costs that can erode a plan participant’s retirement savings. We partner with you in a much more accountable way—all of our fees are transparent and disclosed. Do you know all the fees in your plan?

4. Optimize Plan Design

  • If your plan isn’t customized to your business’ current needs and especially your needs as the business owner, it could be a poor fit and prevent you from meeting your financial goals. We often find that plan sponsors who work with us are able to take advantage of tax benefits they didn’t know were available to them, and improve the effectiveness of the plan as a tool for employee recruitment, retention and financial success. We offer 401(k) plans, profit sharing plans, defined benefit plans and other types of plans to help you succeed.

5. Educate, Advise, and Monitor

  • A salesman makes a sale and leaves. We are independent advisors, looking to build long-term, valuable relationships with you, to help educate your employees and encourage better participation in the plan, and to achieve your own financial goals. Wouldn’t you rather work with someone who wants to partner with you in your success?

Our plans are backed by the expertise and strength of Loring Ward, which manages more than $5.2B in assets. The video below tells the story of our valuable retirement plan offering. Please contact us to to discuss the details of your company plan.