PCWA has access to a wide range of retirement plans to address the retirement needs for you, your business and your employees.
Retirement Plan Consulting:
Acting as a Co-fiduciary, Private Client Wealth Advisors provides retirement plan consulting services designed to create compliant plans, reduce fiduciary exposure and create retirement readiness for your employees.
Leveraging our experience working with vendors like Fidelity Investments as well as our experience with employers/plan sponsors, our goal is to help you provide efficient and robust retirement plan offering to your employees. We have the flexibility to act in a fee based arrangement and to work with your existing provider to reduce plan costs while asking for resources to support your employees.
Time is of the essence when you are running a business and you are faced with multiple tasks and responsibilities. We focus on the details of your retirement plan to provide the most benefit to you and your employees so your fiduciary risk is reduced and so you can focus on the day to day. We work with your provider to keep them accountable and partner with you to organize your responsibilities and stand by your side.
Our services focus on four key areas:
- Benchmarking (RFI) and Vendor Searches (RFP)
- Investment Selection/Analysis and monitoring
- Fiduciary Guidance, 404 (c), 3(21), and 3(38)
- Employee Education & Communication
BENCHMARKING (RFI) AND VENDOR SEARCHES (RFP)
Benchmarking your plan at least every three years can insure you are getting the most out of your current provider and provide insight as to what the current market provides in terms or resources and cost. Part of acting as a fiduciary is doing your due diligence and understanding what is available in the market place. We manage this process for you and provide a detailed report which will allow you to take action or just keep your due diligence files up to date.
Request for Information (RFI)
Sometimes considered to be a little less detailed, the RFI will provide an overview of where you plan resides today and what is available in the marketplace. Often completing a service-by-service comparison will make you aware of areas of your plan that can be improved or things you can leverage your current provider for that you are not currently utilizing. Part of our RFI process is to complete a service comparison checklist.
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Often the RFP is conducted when a provider change is imminent. Detailed information and proposals are provided so that a new vendor can be selected. We can manage the process of running an RFP and help you select a new provider.
INVESTMENT SELECTION/ANALYSIS AND MONITORING
Part of providing the best retirement plan for your employees and plan participants is putting in place an IPS (investment policy Statement). The IPS spells out the criteria for the investments offered in the plan as well as how those investments are monitored. This documented process protects you and helps you make informed decisions together with PCWA.
Our investment selection and monitoring process is detailed and backed by research and reporting. We look at variables such as inception date, manager tenure, composition, style, expense ratio and return. Having a process and detailed reporting allows you to provide the best possible opportunities for your employees to be successful in saving for retirement while allowing you to keep up with your fiduciary responsibilities.
FIDUCIARY GUIDANCE, 404 (C), 3(21), and 3(38)
At, Private Client Wealth Advisors, we stand by your side as your fiduciary partner. Running is business is complex, leveraging experts to off load important tasks can allow for efficiencies while reducing risk to your business and creating valuable benefits to your employees.
There are many ways we help clients with their fiduciary responsibility. Among them are general guidance as well as adopting or implementing steps to align with sections 404 (c), 3(21), and 3(38).
We will help you establish your plan as a 404 (c). While compliance with section 404(C) is optional, it is one of the most important tools for helping plan sponsors mange fiduciary responsibility.
The five key actions for complying with 404(c) are:
Notify participants that the plan intends to comply with 404(c) and that they will be allowed to direct their investments
Offer at least three core investments
Designate a default fund that meets the requirements of QDIA
Give participants access to and control over their accounts
Turn participants into prudent investors through ongoing education
We will also help you understand your traditional role as a named fiduciary and administrator as well as your ability to hire a 3(21) or 3(38) fiduciary.
Definitions:
A 3(21) fiduciary is: an advisor who renders investment advice for a fee with respect to any monies, investments, or other property of a plan, or has responsibility to do so. Such an advisor serves in a co-fiduciary capacity to the plan and thus shares fiduciary responsibility and liability with other plan fiduciaries (i.e., investment committee members, board members). Hiring an ERISA section 3(21) fiduciary may help to mitigate the potential liability of the other plan co-fiduciaries, as the advisor would provide the necessary investment expertise and process to assist in the required investment decision-making process.
A 3(38) fiduciary defines the term “investment manager” as a fiduciary who also is responsible for providing investment advisory services, but with the important distinction of possessing discretionary control over the investment decisions for the plan. In hiring a 3(38) fiduciary adviser plan fiduciaries (again, investment committees, board members, etc.) remove themselves from the ongoing investment decision-making process. However they cannot eliminate all of their fiduciary responsibility, as some articles would suggest. Procedural prudence remains necessary for all fiduciary decision making. This includes the process for hiring not only an ERISA section 3(21) fiduciary advisor, but potentially even more so for the process for hiring an ERISA 3(38) advisor (because the fiduciaries are turning over control of all investment decisions to the ERISA 3(38) advisor).
Providing the best possible benefits to your employees, having a documents process in place and reducing risk for your business are all things that we help you put in place a your fiduciary partner.
EMPLOYEE EDUCATION & COMMUNICATION
Listed as number four but perhaps not in the order of importance a solid employee education program can give your employees confidence about their future and help allow them to understand how much they are valued as employees.
Education is not just providing a group seminar on company time….it is so much more. Communicating with employees in a way that makes them feel comfortable and empowered to make decisions can help drive overall employee satisfaction while providing a real long term benefit. Our goal is to deliver compelling presentations, fresh content and to offer information in a variety of ways. Whether it is an enrollment meeting, targeted education, review of online tools or a day where individual meetings are offered with a CFP® (Certified Financial Planner™), our goal is to empower your employees with helpful information that is easy to understand.
Our education programs can drive employee behavior as well as overall satisfaction. We will work with you to not only put in place an education and communication program but also to measure the results and effectiveness.