Benchmarking of the platform, fees, investments, and services allows you to understand exactly what you are paying and whether fees are competitive or not. We negotiate fees and document that the fees paid by you and the plan participants are reasonable for the service you are receiving. Our approach to fee negotiation is proactive. Waiting for a fee reduction on an existing platform generally happens only when the fees become clearly misaligned to the marketplace.
- We prepare a comparison of the costs and fees associated with the current custodian, investment manager and fund costs.
- In monitoring the Plan’s fees, we review of the Plan’s ERISA spending account or Plan Expense Recapture Account (PERA), and when warranted recommend possible change in fee structure to reduce fees.
- In working with a third-party service provider we develop a benchmarking report based on the demographics of the Plan and characteristics of the Client in terms of size, location, industry, etc.
- We solicit and evaluate proposals from other providers to help ensure services and fees remain competitive.
We prefer to review the fees of your plan line-by-line:
Advisory Service | Always level with us |
Recordkeeper Fee | If revenue share – explained |
Average Investment Expenses | If revenue share – explained |
Third Party Administrator (if applicable) | If revenue share – explained |
Annual Audit (if applicable) | Paid by ERISA bucket or employer |