Retirement Plan Services
Retirement Plan Fiduciaries
As a Retirement Plan Fiduciary you have the highest level of responsibility to your plan’s participants, yet the day-to-day demands of running your business may often prevent you from being fully engaged with and understanding all of what is required of you within your plan’s documents, under the law and by the regulators.
More importantly, Plan Fiduciaries often do not have the time nor the desire to stay on top of every new development, plan offering and/or industry trend as it relates to your retirement plan. By assisting you in outsourcing many of your on-going plan management and other fiduciary responsibilities to competent outside professionals, we can help you save your time and limit your personal risk, as well as potentially cut your costs.
BFF Financial Client Alerts:
Is Your Retirement Advisor Overcharging Your Plan?
Benchmarking Reports Document a Fiduciary Breach and Prohibited Transaction
Electing 404(c) is a No-Brainer for Plan Fiduciaries
401(k) Plans:
Our innovative and industry-leading approach to assisting on your 401(k) plan combines a relatively low flat-fee for our services and will introduce the plan’s fiduciary(s) to their available options on outsourcing fiduciary obligations and liabilities to other third-party professionals.
These outside fiduciary-level partners will not only take on most of your on-going responsibilities to the plan, but in doing so will decrease your liability and dramatically reduce your time commitments to the plan. If you are interested in taking less fiduciary risk, spending less time managing your plan and potentially saving money in meeting your fiduciary obligations… you should allow us to provide you with a complimentary evaluation of your 401k plan. Schedule a Retirement Plan Review
Defined Benefit & Cash Balance Plans:
Each defined benefit and/or cash balance plan is as unique as the company sponsoring it. It is therefore important to conduct a thorough analysis of the current plan including its actuarial statement, investment policy statement, asset allocation, investment managers and fees. In addition to asset allocation and manager selection, BFF Financial works closely with our fiduciaries as they address the on-going challenges of managing their pension plan and will typically assist in better matching the plan’s investment assets with its liability profile.
BFF Financial can also be of assistance as plan sponsors (particularly with frozen DB plans) contemplate winding down the plan and/or evaluating other de-risking (i.e. risk transfer) strategies. These strategies can off-load liabilities of the plan but have accounting, investment and fiduciary oversight implications that require specific expertise. Schedule a Retirement Plan Review
CEFEX Certification Audits - Fiduciary Assessments
BFF Financial can provide your retirement plan with a CEFEX assessment which is based on the international standard, ISO 19011: Guideline for quality management system auditing. We have been offering this service for our clients dating back to 2004. The assessment is evidence-based, and all work is reviewed by the CEFEX Registration Committee to ensure impartiality and consistency. The assessment is conducted by CEFEX Analysts who must hold the Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst® designation and maintain annual training by CEFEX. The assessment methodology includes attorney-developed schedules based on regulation.
For more information on how your retirement plan could benefit from a CEFEX Certification please click here and to learn how your participants could benefit click here. For more information on a CEFEX Certification please visit the CEFEX website. Schedule Appointment.
Fiduciary Statement of Plan Management® or FSPM®
We can assist Retirement Plan Sponsors (“Plan Fiduciaries”) with the adoption and implementation of an annual FSPM® (Fiduciary Statement of Plan Management®.) This service is designed to help Plan Fiduciaries to Organize, Formalize, Implement and Monitor the practices, procedures and processes that they, as a Plan Fiduciary, should follow as well as document annually to demonstrate prudence in managing and delivering on their fiduciary responsibilities. The annual FSPM® forms the basis of and documents an intelligible prudent process that will bring fiduciary imperatives into practical application.
The annual FSPM® also can assist the Plan Fiduciary in understanding and meeting their ongoing legal duties as required under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”), the Uniform Prudent Investor Act (“UPIA”), the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (“UPMIFA”) and/or the Uniform Management of Public Employee Retirement Systems Act (“MPERS”.) Schedule Appointment.