Retirement Plan Services

Our team uses the following steps to help our clients meet the retirement plan needs of their participants and organization.

1. Plan design and coordination tools

Design and implement a plan that balances the needs of the employer and the participants. The goal is to provide a best-in-class 401(k) plan; one that reduces administrative burden and will provide the desired flexibility to produce the best participant outcomes.

2. Fiduciary consulting

Implement a fiduciary governance process that is aligned with best practices. Our service model provides §3(16) and §3(38) fiduciary services as well as a directed trustee. This approach delegates as much fiduciary risk to other parties as the law allows.

3. Investment consulting

Provide highly rated, low cost institutional asset class funds and broadly diversified risk-based model portfolios. We never use proprietary products and do not receive compensation from investment product providers.

4. Participant success

Help participants understand the importance of participating in the plan. Offering things like auto-enrollment, auto-escalation, qualified default options (QDIA) and auto-rebalancing are some of the available opportunities to lead them down the path of financial success.

5. Engaged participation education

Teach employees to make better and more confident decisions. Online retirement readiness education and calculators increase engagement and confidence. This approach often leads to better participant outcomes.

We are compliant with the Employment Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and assume full fiduciary responsibility as an ESIRA 3(38) investment manager.

What does this mean for you? As an employer, you are personally liable for the decisions you make for our company’s retirement plan. Allowing Baker Tilly Wealth Management to serve as your full scope ERISA 3(38) investment fiduciary will allow you to:

• Focus on the growth of your business
• Offload your investment fiduciary responsibility
• Reduce the amount of time spent on retirement plan committee meetings
• Eliminate your liability for managing investment options
• Provide the best tools for your employee’s retirement plans

Our team takes our fiduciary responsibility a step further by also providing 3(16) fiduciary services through Retirement Plan Fiduciaries, LLC.* This means that our partner takes vital responsibilities off your hands and takes complete responsibility for all aspects of plan administration. Most importantly, this means that liability is shifted, mitigating risk for you. Example tasks that Retirement Plan Fiduciaries would handle as your 3(16) fiduciary:

• Checking and signing off on various plan-related forms, such as the Form 5500
• Reviewing all compliance testing
• Consulting on plan design
• Working directly with plan auditors
• Managing vesting, eligibility calculations and loan policies
• Preparing and mailing participant notices and disclosures
• Monitoring and notifying you if there are any plan irregularities
• Reviewing and managing suspension of deferrals for hardship withdrawals
• Approving separation distributions
• Monitoring all service providers
• Maintaining total plan oversight to keep you in compliance

Handing these tasks over to a fiduciary comes as quite a relief for business owners and not-for-profit executives who are responsible for their 401(k) or 403(b) plans.

*ERISA 3(16) fiduciary services are provided by Retirement Plan Fiduciaries, LLC and not affiliated with Baker Tilly Wealth Management.