Retirement Plans

Surveys have shown that Retirement Planning has risen to be one of the top employee benefit issues facing employers today. Studies also show that employees, in general, are not saving adequately for retirement. Uncertainty about Social Security and the overall demise of Corporate Defined Benefit plans has elevated the importance of 401(k) and Simple IRA plans. Volatile markets have left many employees uncertain where to invest their reitrement plan assets. It is imparative that employers have a consistent and achievable plan to provide ongoing employee communication and education.

Recent investment performance for the most part has been disappointing to both Plan Sponsors and Participants. Certain well known 401(k) plans have been widely publicized as losing enourmous amounts of money for their participants. This has sparked unprecedented scrutiny by participants towards their own investments. This situation also has caused Plan Sponsors to be questioned more frequently on why they chose certain investment options for their plans. It is crucial that Investments be reviewed to make sure that they are performing well against their peer group and that there is proper diversification amongst the investment options.

Under ERISA, one of the requirements is that every Retirement Plan has a written Investment Policy Statement. In the Investment Policy Statement (IPS), the monitoring and due dilegence process should be documented. It is considered prudent to review the admistration and investment components of the Plan at least once per year to make sure that these are meeting the needs of the participants.

Please contact us if you would like to have your current 401(k) or Simple IRA analyzed and benchmarked.