News

After several bumps in the road, a class action ERISA suit against the auto parts supplier Magna International has finally reached a settlement. The suit, which alleges that approximately 20,000 workers were adversely affected by underperforming funds and high fees, took the long road in reaching its destination. While details of the settlement are still pending, the plan in question had more than $1.6 billion in assets under management at the time of filing. 

From a small family-owned business to a multinational corporation, every client — and plan — deserves the highest level of service. But the specific offering appropriate for each plan can depend largely on its size, and the fees for investments and services can range widely. By leveraging the power of negotiation, advisory know-how and frequent benchmarking, you can help keep fees reasonable for clients no matter how large or small their plan. Here’s a breakdown of how fees can differ between plans based on size.

When delivering a finalist presentation, the key to winning new business lies beyond simply laying out facts and figures. What it requires first and foremost is a connection — an understanding of the sponsors’ point of view, their goals for the plan — and the needs of their employees. You need to make a meaningful connection between fees, investments and the essential services that will allow you to help a company achieve its strategic business objectives and deliver greater value to participants.

With PlanFees, tasks that used to take hours can be completed in minutes — and price quotes that used to take weeks can be generated in under 24 hours. That gives you a valuable opportunity to enhance your level of service and build your practice. Here are just a few things you can do with all the time you’ll save. 

Like in basketball, as a retirement plan advisor, you have to coordinate with a team — a recordkeeper, TPA, HR, the plan sponsor and more — to achieve top performance for the participants counting on you. But to be a baller on the court, or as a retirement plan pro, you’ve got to be able to size up situations accurately in real time, pass critical information to sponsors and other members of the team and respond quickly to achieve top performance for your plan.

Get ready to witness a revolution in the way you navigate retirement plan offerings. We are proud to introduce RFP Express, the bullet train of plan fee benchmarking solutions that is set to transform your advisory offerings and take your practice on the fast track to success.

Harnessing the power of benchmarking can go far beyond simply helping to ensure retirement plan fees remain reasonable for plan participants. As an advisor, you can leverage benchmarking data in a number of ways to provide better, higher touch service to plan sponsor clients and propel the growth of your advisory practice. 

Alternative investments are assets that don’t readily fit into traditional categories like stocks, mutual funds and bonds. Instead, they can include assets like real estate, cryptocurrency, hedge funds, venture capital, private equity and even physical commodities. Changes in underlying technologies or other market factors, such as cryptocurrency platform Ethereum’s recent “merge” update and transition to a more energy-efficient protocol, can have significant impacts on alternative investment valuations, expenses and performance over time.