Employer Sponsored Retirement Plans
We work with employers to implement retirement plans
Employer sponsored retirement plans, such as 401(k)s, profit-sharing and pensions, provide employees with an automatic, tax-advantaged way to save for their retirement. Employers offer these plans to attract and retain workers and to benefit from tax breaks and other financial incentives.
As an employer you are responsible for the effective management of company-sponsored retirement plans. Along with this responsibility comes significant liability under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the rules that govern how qualified retirement plans are to be administered.
The HBKS Retirement Plan Advisors work with companies to develop, implement, and monitor employer-sponsored retirement plans. Our services include:
- Review and oversight of all plan investments, including selection and monitoring of the designated investment options
- Customized participant communication solutions, including group and individual educational workshops
- Analysis of all plan fees and expenses to support due diligence of costs for administering and managing the retirement plan
- Periodic review of service providers and platforms to recognize and take advantage of marketplace changes
Investment Management and Selection
We provide objective co-fiduciary investment consulting to plan sponsors. The process supports the establishment and monitoring of your retirement plan, including:
- Selection: building the fund menu based on a prudent fiduciary standard of care
- Monitoring: measuring the performance of the plan’s investment strategy on a regular basis
- Replacing: helping you replace investment options that are not meeting your plan’s requirements
- Documentation: recording decisions related to the plan’s investment strategy
Your advisor will help you develop an Investment Policy Statement (IPS). The IPS guides the investment selection and monitoring process. Additionally, we maintain systems that monitor plan investment options based on the criteria detailed in the IPS and deliver quarterly monitoring reports for each investment option.
To assist with developing your investment strategy, your advisor may consult with the HBKS Asset Management team, whose deep experience includes providing advisory services for families, corporations and institutions, and managing more than $4 billion in assets.
Open Architecture
Our open-architecture solution allows for access to more than 12,000 investment fund managers. You have tremendous flexibility in selecting best-in-class investments in each asset class.
An open architecture also helps eliminate problems resulting from hidden conflicts of interest that arise frequently with “pay to play” platforms offered by packaged providers, such as insurance companies, banks, mutual fund families and third-party administrators/brokers.
Plan Participant Communications
Your advisor will conduct retirement planning workshops at times and locations convenient for you and your employees. The workshops are comprehensive and include retirement planning concepts, such as:
- An overview of the company’s basic retirement plan provisions
- Determining an appropriate amount to save for retirement
- How to make personal investment allocation decisions
- Roth 401(k) contributions versus pretax 401(k) contributions
Educational workshops for plan participants also cover a variety of important investment concepts, including:
- Establishing an appropriate time horizon for your goal
- Dollar-cost-averaging
- An overview of various asset classes
- Asset allocation and diversification
- Understanding appropriate strategies during periods of market volatility
Ongoing Support
We are devoted to your success as a retirement plan sponsor and committed to an ongoing management process. As co-fiduciaries on your retirement plans, we work to mitigate your risks and control your costs. We also coordinate as appropriate with your other service providers, such as third party administrators (TPAs), tax advisors and auditors to promote a coherent and efficient implementation of your retirement plan.