A truly customized retirement plan reflects much more than company-specific funding and investment schedules. Through our OpenPlan™ retirement plan development process (see Plan Development) we perform in-depth discovery to identify the maximal combination of plan features that satisfy the needs of both plan sponsors and plan participants.
After identifying plan sponsor strategic and funding parameters, along with technology integration requirements, we incorporate important plan participant considerations, such as financial literacy, Retirement Readiness status, Asset Allocation investment opportunities and education, guidance and advice needs.

Our OpenPlan™ open architecture platform (see Open Architecture) provides flexibility to deliver and monitor all appropriate investment funds, and to match plan administration functions with client staff and technology capability.

In addition, we provide a participant-centric, rather than investment-centric participant support portal along with education and guidance programs to maximize plan value for each participant. We also create a customized schedule of participant retirement education and resource guidance webinars, along with various reports and whitepapers.

Strategic Considerations

The most successful retirement plans satisfy the needs of both current and future employees. The plan should reward current employees and entice future employees. Clearly defining the strategic motivation for the plan, such as providing a “lifestyle” asset versus a wealth accumulation vehicle, will help guide the plan sponsor with decisions regarding all aspects of the plan.

Plan Funding

Retirement plan funding should create an optimal balance between employee satisfaction and employer commitment.  The plan funding method (i.e. matching, profit sharing, safe harbor, etc.) should reward employee groups based on both compliance requirements and participant value to the company. Utilizing our “Six Components of Customized Retirement Plans” (see Custom Plan Design) we can implement a plan funding formula that maximizes plan sponsor expenditures.

Participant Demographics and Plan Impact

It is essential for a plan sponsor to fully understand the specific impact of retirement plan components on each plan participant. Such understanding begins with a thorough analysis of participant demographics (i.e. age, length of service, compensation, etc.) as a base for measuring the impact of various plan design considerations.

The OpenPlan™ “Plan Implementation Report” (see Plan Development) provides a detailed statement summarizing the specific outcome for each plan participant based on plan funding variables. We also provide a Retirement Readiness assessment indicating the current and projected capability of your employee population to meet fundamental guidelines indicating their ability to maintain a comparable lifestyle at retirement.

Appropriate Investment Funds

Selecting appropriate investment funds for your retirement plan goes well beyond reviewing fund historical investment results and asset charges. Our investment selection process (see Investment Selection Process) utilizes a multi-discipline fund selection methodology that covers all asset classes.

We firmly believe that providing participants with asset allocation opportunities will maximize each participant’s capability to find their optimum personal balance between investment risk and reward.  Therefore we typically provide three different customized asset allocation opportunities:

• Individual funds with an allocated investment style
• Target Date Funds
• Proprietary Investment Program Model (IPM) portfolios

Participant Support Services

Successful retirement plans provide easily accessible and user-friendly participant support. Experience has shown that the more comfortable participants are with their ability to access information pertaining to their plan accounts the more willing they are to contribute to the plan. Also, if plan participants perceive that they can easily make changes to their retirement accounts they will be more aggressive in the personal management of their funds.

Our best-in-class recordkeeping technology provides three seamless access methods for participants to obtain information and support pertaining to their retirement plan accounts:

• Secure internet portal
• Toll-free automated voice responsive system
• Toll-free personal customer service

In addition to multiple online education and guidance resources, our participant support portal provides advanced personal planning and investment advice via our “AdvicePlus” feature. The AdvicePlus feature was developed by MasteryPOINT Financial Technologies, an independent industry leading provider of participant retirement plan guidance and advice.

Fiduciary Protection

Being a retirement plan sponsor entails many different obligations, many of which include specific regulatory fiduciary liability. There are four categories of retirement plan sponsor activity that create fiduciary liability:

• Plan Administration
• Investment Management
• Participant Investments and Disclosures
• Participant Education

OpenPlan™ provides a unique level of free fiduciary protection for plan sponsors through our proprietary SponsorGuard™ program. SponsorGuard™ was created to provide comprehensive and cost-effective fiduciary support for plan sponsors selecting the OpenPlan™ retirement plan platform. Our objective is to eliminate any burden on plan sponsor staff and resources in administration of the plan, thus transferring basic plan administration responsibility to the level of “greatest competence.”

SponsorGuard™ delivers a high level of fiduciary protection to the OpenPlan™ plan sponsor at no cost.

You can learn more about the details for each of the specific SponsorGuard™ programs by accessing our various reports:

“Fiduciary Protection for Plan Sponsors: Plan Administration”
“Fiduciary Protection for Plan Sponsors: Investment Management”
“Fiduciary Protection for Plan Sponsors: Participant Investment and Disclosures”
“Fiduciary Protection for Plan Sponsors: Participant Education”