Now is a great time to sit down with your clients to evaluate their retirement plan. This quick checklist can provide a starting point to help make sure your clients are getting the most out of their plan: 

Flexible Plan Design and Compliance:

• Are your clients getting the desired level of participation in their retirement plan from their employees?
• Is the plan designed to reward and retain their most valuable employees?
• If their participants direct the investments in their own accounts, is the plan designed to be 404(c) compliant – so that the plan trustee may generally be relieved of fiduciary responsibility over participant investment choices?

Plan design can sometimes be a factor in low employee participation. Take a look at areas such as eligibility requirements, vesting schedules and contribution structures to see where you can make some improvements. Recently legislative changes have given employers the ability to enhance their retirement plan so that it is attractive to both existing and potential employees.

Employee Communications:

• Do you feel your clients receive the resources they need to help their employees understand the importance of saving for retirement. and the tools to help them effectively determine the appropriate contribution level and asset allocation?
• Ask your client if they have considered hosting employee meetings to provide ongoing information about the company’s retirement plan, legislative changes, or retirement planning in general? Most providers can offer assistance and/or offer employee seminars?
• Is the plan structured to provide the maximum benefit to your most valuable employees? 

Educating employees about the importance of retirement savings is important, but not enough. Employers must offer continued education for those employees who already understand how important it is to save and want to know how to maximize their savings and what their next steps should be. Many providers offer educational seminars that cover a variety of subjects for the novice and the savvy investor.

Investment Options:

• Do employees ever express concern over the investment options offered in your client’s plan? 
• Does your client’s current plan offer clear information about investment performance?
• Do employees feel that they have access to a wide variety of investment options?  

Confidence in the investment options can be critical in ensuring participation. Providing information on the portfolio managers, fund performance, fund objective, and other fund details can help to make employees feel more secure about their retirement plan and their investment choices.

Plan Administration and Service:

• Do you or your client have difficulty contacting the plan provider?
• Does the provider give quick and accurate answers to your routine questions? 
• Are your client’s reports timely and accurate? 

Good plan administration and service means your client’s time is spent focused on their business and not answering questions that weren’t covered thoroughly in the plan materials or following up on participant requests. It is important to have knowledgeable representatives available to your clients and their participants to assist them with day-to-day tasks and questions about the plan.

Managing your fiduciary responsibility:

• Does the provider give your client a sample Investment Policy Statement to assist them with their fiduciary obligations?
• Is the plan designed to comply with ERISA section 404(c) so that the plan fiduciary may generally be relieved of fiduciary responsibility for the participants’ investment choices?
• Does the plan provider keep you informed of the latest changes in legal qualification requirements, as well as IRS and DOL regulations, and how these impact your client’s retirement plan?

In today’s business environment, your client’s role as a plan fiduciary has never been more important.  But that doesn’t mean it has to be a burden.  A plan provider can be a valuable resource in understanding what the client’s fiduciary role is and how to best manage that role to minimize risk.

The bottom line:

As your client's company changes, their retirement plan should too.  This checklist can serve as a starting point when working with your clients on evaluating their retirement offerings. 

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