The Advisor Toolkit for Small Business Retirement Plan Success

As a retirement plan advisor, you know small business clients can face unique challenges. With typically fewer resources to dedicate to managing retirement plans, they may rely even more heavily on your expertise and resources to guide them. For that reason, you need to be particularly mindful of efficiency — and equip yourself with the best tools available. Leveraging PlanFees’ suite of benchmarking solutions can help you provide a higher level of service without dedicating copious man-hours to help ensure clients’ plans stay competitive and compliant.

Give Small Clients a Big Advantage

Larger companies often enjoy the perks of economies of scale, which can translate to lower per-participant costs. Small businesses, however, with typically smaller plan assets, will tend to have less negotiating clout and often face higher fees. At the same time, oversights in fee management can have an outsized impact on smaller organizations because in relative terms, any mistake in fee management can be costlier for them. By keeping a close eye on fees with Prism Total Fees Benchmarking — a quick and easy two-minute benchmark that you can perform annually or whenever the situation warrants — you can help ensure fees remain reasonable. 

Benchmark for Better Efficiency

Another common dilemma small businesses encounter is striking the right balance between customization and cost. Small business clients may want a retirement plan that’s specially tailored to their requirements while also accounting for budget constraints. As their advisor, you’re tasked with giving them the personalized services they need but remaining cost-efficient at the same time. Prism365 lets you input 15 advisory services across five key performance areas. You can even include custom services and frequencies for your advisory fee benchmark.

Rapid, Real-world Quotes

Small businesses with smaller plans may lack access to lower cost share classes that larger plans typically enjoy. But with RFP Express, you can get pricing from top providers instantly — and custom quotes in 24 hours — to scour the landscape for opportunities that allow small businesses to tap into the most cost-effective options available to them. We now offer advisors an even more flexible and efficient quoting experience. Choose from: 

1. Open Architecture Quotes: Assumes no proprietary fund requirements. 
2. RFP Express Lineup: Assumes use of best-in-class low-cost fund lineup for quotes. 
3. Proprietary Fund Lineup: Assumes use of proprietary funds by the recordkeeper specified by the advisor. 

Enjoy unparalleled convenience with RFP Express.

Enhanced Service for Small Enterprises
It’s not uncommon for small businesses to be less familiar and informed regarding their fiduciary responsibilities — they might tend to rely on their vendor relationships instead of frequently evaluating the marketplace, which can disadvantage them. It’s crucial for advisors to encourage a marketplace evaluation mindset, and PlanFees makes that easier.

Think Big With Small Business Clients
With PlanFees benchmarking, you’ll have access to fast and convenient benchmarking data so that, even with a small business client, you can deliver big on service, with analytics to provide evidence-based decision-making insights. Our suite of innovative technology solutions can help you keep a close eye on client fees, meet the needs of small businesses — and elevate your advisory practice to new heights.