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WHEN IT COMES
to presenting retirement plan providers to your clients,
chances are a spreadsheet is involved. This age-old tool
inevitably proves useful in showing differences in
administration, technology, employee communication and,
of course, pricing. But how good is it at revealing
whether or not a provider will pay attention to your
clients, build and maintain professional relationships,
make their jobs easier and offer solutions that exceed
expectations?
Most side-by-side comparisons fail to capture the things
that really matter to your clients, such as personalized
service and delivering a product that suits their needs
and goals. As your clients’ champion, you need to dig
deep to find a provider that can truly provide value in
a numbers-focused world.
During the selection and analysis of a retirement plan
provider, start by asking the following questions:
·
How involved are your field people in the servicing of a
plan?
Use this question to determine if your client can expect
to receive personalized, local service from experienced
sales and service teams that will conduct enrollment
meetings and help them deal with plan design and
fiduciary issues. In some cases, services are outsourced
by providers to contractors.
·
What kind of service results do you achieve?
To find out what other plan sponsors think about a
provider’s service, check out the results of annual
surveys conducted by independent third parties such as
401kExchange, PLANSPONSOR magazine and Boston
Research Group.
·
Do you offer a full package of plan solutions?
A provider should be able to accommodate clients’ needs
as they grow. For example, can the provider add a key
exec or defined benefit plan to a client’s existing
401(k) plan?
·
Do you act as a fiduciary under ERISA with respect to
the investment advisory services provided to the Client?
In particular, find out if the provider will act as a
fiduciary of the plan with respect to section 3(21)(A)
of ERISA. Make sure you have total understanding of this
topic– it is a critical and important issue to clarify
on behalf of your clients.
If you’re an advisor who understands and believes in
value, call 877.805.1127 to be connected to a pension
consultant at The Standard. We can help you better
understand the issues that are truly important to your
client -- and position you as the key consultant in
their quest for the perfect retirement plan provider.
StanCorp Equities, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC, distributes
group variable annuity and group annuity contracts
issued by Standard Insurance Company and may provide
other brokerage services. Third party administrative
services are provided by Standard Retirement Services,
Inc. Investment advisory services are provided by
StanCorp Investment Advisers, Inc., a registered
investment advisor. StanCorp Equities, Inc., Standard
Insurance Company, Standard Retirement Services, Inc.,
and StanCorp Investment Advisers, Inc are subsidiaries
of StanCorp Financial Group, Inc. and all are Oregon
corporations.
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