Tips for
Good Retirement Plan Hygiene
Offering a company retirement plan is not a “set it and forget it” benefit - it requires ongoing attention.
We are often asked what companies should do to make sure their retirement plan is in good shape. Too often, we see plans that have been neglected or haven’t been put through the proper steps to ensure the plan is capitalizing on market trends and new features. Neglecting the plan design, execution, and costs can lead to catastrophic situations in the form of audits or lawsuits.et and expectations were strong for 2020.
Benchmark your plan’s expenses.
Look at the investment menu expense ratios.
Review your investment menu lineup.
Meet regularly to review the overall performance of your retirement plan.
Conduct regular educational sessions.
Retirement plan documents are full of legal jargon and knowing the difference between investment elections can be confusing and can turn off employees from participating, which is contrary to the purpose of the plan. We recommend that plan sponsors work with their financial advisors to conduct regular educational sessions for staff. If employees do not feel comfortable with what a retirement plan is, and what the accompanying benefits are, then they are less likely to participate at all or participate in a way where they won’t be maximizing the potential of what their plan has to offer. We recommend that educational sessions are in “plain English” with easy-to-understand descriptions presented in a positive and personalized way.
To keep your teeth in good shape, you brush and floss your teeth multiple times daily and see the dentist twice a year. You may not always like doing these things, but you know that doing them will help your teeth and hopefully keep dreaded cavities away. Doing the same thing with your plan will also keep it in good shape by looking at the areas we’ve discussed above.
Polaris Wealth Advisory Group works with employers to help them manage their employer-sponsored retirement plans.
HERE ARE SOME AREAS WE CAN ASSIST PLAN SPONSORS:
- Benchmarking: Polaris Wealth provides complimentary benchmarking analyses for any company looking to assess their costs against what they could be paying elsewhere
- Investment costs: We routinely analyze our recommended investment menu fund lineup to make sure it is capturing the lowest costs in the market today.
- Investment menu: We build investment menus with an eye on simplicity and efficiency to reduce redundancy and complexity for plan participants.
- Investment Committees: We work with companies to write Investment Policy Statements and we advise on the construction of Investment Committees that lead to dependable plan oversight.
- Education: Polaris Wealth offers educational resources to help employees successfully navigate through all that their retirementplan has to offer.
