Investment Advising
Choosing and monitoring investment options in your plan is a serious fiduciary responsibility. Working with a retirement plan representative will help ease the burden of your fiduciary obligations. ERISA states that investment decisions must be based on procedural prudence, which the U.S. Department of Labor and courts measure by analyzing the process used.
As your Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor, we can help you establish an investment strategy that fits the defined needs of your business and your employees while adhering to your fiduciary responsibilities.
Our investment process includes:
Investment Committee Meetings: If you don’t have an investment committee yet, we’ll help you establish one to include experienced members of finance, HR and operations. We can oversee these meetings quarterly and will include recording of minutes when we discuss investment changes or decisions. This documentation will show due diligence has been taken in advance of a decision.
Investment Policy Statement (IPS): We can assist in developing a customized IPS for your plan. This is your roadmap for investment oversight because it determines the prudent processes and criteria for selecting and monitoring plan investments. When the Investment Committee meets, it uses the IPS to benchmark and review funds, fees and whether the investment strategy is meeting its stated goals and objectives.
Investment Selection: It’s important to create a proportional investment lineup that offers a vast diversification across asset classes nor be overtly similar to each other, and the fund menu should provide a range of risk and reward. We will make investment recommendations based on a precise quantitative and qualitative evaluation process.
Investment Monitoring: Underperforming funds should be monitored closely and replaced if necessary. Simply adding funds to counteract low performers increases fiduciary risk and can be interpreted as not fulfilling ERISA responsibilities. We conduct semi-annual investment reviews so you can ensure performance and expenses are consistent with the plan’s intentions and IPS criteria.