Refining employee benefit plan operations
Top-performing organizations are rethinking their approach to managing employee benefit plans. With mounting pressures to reimagine how to access a broader set of talent and technology solutions while reducing costs and shedding their worst risks, a strategic fiduciary services provider can help fill gaps and transform your operations.
We offer our independent ERISA Section 3(16) plan administration program as a Managed Service. We provide our clients with a strategic solution to reduce administrative burdens and mitigate fiduciary risk that recordkeepers’ and TPAs’ conflicts of interest prohibit. By outsourcing the role of Plan Administrator to a qualified third party, organizations benefit from expert oversight of compliance, timely government filings, participant disclosures, cybersecurity, and vendor management.
Governance and Oversight
We help clients select and monitor the vendors that serve their retirement, pension, healthcare, and welfare benefit plans by evaluating the quality of their services and the reasonableness of their fees.
Operations
We provide fiduciary committees with the risk assessments, procedures, and AI-enabled vendor monitoring they need to manage their role as the main guarantor of the security of benefit plan assets and data. Our assessments adhere to guidelines issued by the Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”) and standards published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”).
Compliance and Risk Management
We help clients select and monitor the vendors that serve their retirement, pension, healthcare, and welfare benefit plans by evaluating the quality of their services and the reasonableness of their fees.
Vendor Management
We provide fiduciary committees with the risk assessments, procedures, and AI-enabled vendor monitoring they need to manage their role as the main guarantor of the security of benefit plan assets and data. Our assessments adhere to guidelines issued by the Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”) and standards published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”).
Controls and Reporting
We help clients select and monitor the vendors that serve their retirement, pension, healthcare, and welfare benefit plans by evaluating the quality of their services and the reasonableness of their fees.
White Paper
It is understandable that many retirement Plan Sponsors would like to absolve themselves of their fiduciary liability to an outsourced party. But is the increasingly popular idea of engaging a “3(16)” service provider practical or is it even safe?
Practical Tip
5 Answers to Best Practices Questions
We asked experts in our Risk Practice Group to reveal the questions most frequently asked by human resources managers about best practices for enterprises that sponsor retirement plans qualified under the Employee Retirement Income Act (“ERISA”). In this issue of TIPS, you’ll find answers about the top five questions they ask.
Practical Tip
Doing Fiduciary Governance Right Matters
Any organization that sponsors a regulated retirement plan needs a blueprint for compliance and a system for governing the plan that integrates with its overall enterprise risk strategy.
Examples of Our Work
Created an assurance envionment for cybersecurity
A leading financial institution requested that Roland|Criss conduct a full-blown review of its employee benefit plan data security environment. The client was responding to the increased external pressure of the U.S. Department of Labor. We were asked to meet a number of objectives, including examining the cybersecurity capabilities of the third-party and subservice vendors in the retirement and healthcare plans, upgrading the organization’s enterprise-level data security policy, and establishing a 24/7 real-time tracking capability of the plans’ vendors.
Implemented a compliant governance framework for plan fiduciaries
A national medical equipment manufacturer experienced regulatory stress in operating a retirement and healthcare plan complex. After a thorough process assessment, we worked with human resources, information technology, and the independent financial auditor to implement a management workflow that mirrors ERISA’s standards of care.
Established a fiduciary practices assessment strategy
A university’s audit committee instructed the retirement plan committee to modernize its internal controls. We established a formal charter and ensured all committee members read, reviewed, and understood governing documents, such as the investment policy statement (IPS), plan document, trust statement, cybersecurity policy, and healthcare plan disclosures. Where gaps occurred between policies and practices, we implemented procedures that realigned them. We conducted annual assessments to prevent any future misalignments.
Trained and onboarded new fiduciary committee members
A regional law firm utilizes our fiduciary training program to onboard members of its fiduciary committees, providing them with up-to-date core functional knowledge and industry insights. Additionally, we assisted several new retirement and healthcare plan managers with customized onboarding programs that include current perspectives on the role of fiduciaries, committee effectiveness, and industry-specific trends.
Professional evaluations help ensure ongoing improvements
Our process assessments use a 72-point framework that is vital in helping our clients maintain a precise picture of their retirement and healthcare plans’ conformance to legal standards and best practices.
Join our journey towards excellence
We make employee benefit plan operations easier.
Efficient operations enhance strategic planning by optimizing resources, improving data insights, boosting agility, engaging employees, saving costs, and managing risks.
By focusing on those elements inherent in employee benefit plans, we help our clients create a strong foundation for strategic planning that drives long-term success.
