Defined Contribution Services
Building healthy qualified retirement plans that minimize risk and maximize participant outcomes
Qualified retirement plans continue to evolve, so too does the definition of plan success. It’s no longer just about deferral and participation rates. It’s about how well your plan design, investment menu, governance process, and administration function as one to drive retirement readiness while mitigating fiduciary risk.
This new definition means you have to look at your plan in a new light.
Using our proprietary diagnostic tool, we thoroughly examine the critical dimensions of your plan to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Based on our findings, we then work with you to develop a road map for improving its overall health.
A well-designed 401(k) or 403(b) plan helps employees retire on their terms.
With complex regulatory requirements and the threat of personal liability for plan fiduciaries, maintaining your 401(k) or 403(b) plan can be a time-consuming and overwhelming process. Let us take some of the responsibility off your shoulders.
With increasing attention focused on fiduciary roles and responsibilities, maintaining a sound retirement plan is more important than ever before. Our retirement plan advisors help you review and redesign all aspects of your plan to increase its effectiveness and drive better results.
Your automatic plan features, loan policies and distribution flexibility help shape employees’ savings behavior. Our analysis of these provisions helps you encourage maximum participation while limiting “leakage.” Proposed design changes may include increasing the default contribution percentage, adding auto escalation, or permitting systematic withdrawals.
How do you prove you’ve met your fiduciary obligations? It starts by establishing and following documented policies and procedures. We conduct fiduciary training for your plan committee and help you draft a committee charter, prepare meeting agendas, and record plan decisions in meeting minutes. You also have access to an online fiduciary file, so you can respond quickly to inquiries. Our annual governance calendar keeps key compliance tasks top of mind.
Building an investment menu involves a myriad of decisions—number of options to offer, mix of asset classes, active or passive funds, to name a few. We help your committee create a diversified investment menu that aligns with your organization’s goals and the financial sophistication of your employees.
The decision to outsource plan functions to a third party requires careful consideration. Excessive fees can erode the retirement readiness of your employees. We conduct RFPs, benchmark fee structures, and evaluate the value of the services being provided to help you select the best providers for your plan.
The most effective plans are the ones that have a 90%+participation rate, a 10%+ contribution rate, and 90% of plan assets invested in a target-date fund or professionally managed account. Hitting these thresholds depends not only on your plan design and investment menu but also on participant education. We offer employees comprehensive, objective guidance to help them understand how retirement planning fits into their current financial picture.
Our experienced retirement plan team takes a modern approach to plan design that maximizes value for both employers and employees.
Philip Steele
Partner
The oversight of retirement plans extends far beyond investments. With increased litigation coupled with a complex regulatory environment, it’s important to select a retirement plan advisory firm that has the experience and expertise across all aspects of your plan to deliver maximum value to your participants and your bottom line. That’s Cerity Partners.
We are a Center for Fiduciary Excellence (CEFEX)-certified firm. So you can trust that our advice is always in the best interest of your organization and its employees.
This certification is only awarded to financial services organizations that undergo a rigorous, independent assessment of their business practices, including transparency, objectivity and client service. To learn more about CEFEX, please visit cefex.org.
Defined Contribution Consulting is just one way Cerity Partners helps HR teams deliver better outcomes. See how all our services work together to maximize value, minimize fiduciary risk and ease your administrative responsibilities.