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What Should an Open Enrollment Meeting Cover?
An effective open enrollment meeting helps employees understand what changed, what their benefits will cost, what decisions they need to make, and when they need to act.
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What Happens If a Committee Doesn't Follow Its Investment Policy Statement (IPS)?
An IPS can work for your committee or against it, and the difference is usually one word. A policy that says the committee will remove a fund is a promise. One that says the committee may remove it is a guideline.
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How Often Should a Plan Sponsor Benchmark 401(k) Fees?
What the law actually asks of your committee on fee benchmarking, where the three-to-five-year figure everyone repeats came from, and how to set a cadence you can defend.
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Directed vs. Discretionary Trustee: What's the Difference?
What separates a directed trustee from a discretionary one, who ends up responsible for the plan's investment decisions under each, and how to tell which arrangement your plan is using.
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Can a Business Owner be the Trustee of their 401(k) Plan?
This post covers what serving as your own 401(k) trustee actually involves, how the role changes once employees join the plan, what you personally take on, and what a corporate trustee does and doesn't change.
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How Do You Build a Benefits Communication Calendar?
A benefits communication calendar works when each message is scheduled for the point in the year when employees can still act on it, and building one takes little more than your plan dates and the nine emails in this kit.
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What Is a Qualified Default Investment Alternative (QDIA)?
A QDIA is the investment your plan uses when an employee never picks one, whether they were enrolled automatically or just skipped the investment election, and only certain investments qualify.
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What Should an Employee Financial Education Program Include?
A financial education program comes down to four things a committee decides: what you teach, how you teach it, who does the teaching, and which participant numbers you check before and after.
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What Events Should Trigger a 401(k) Service Provider Review?
Some things shouldn't wait for the next scheduled provider review. Here are the six events, and what to do when one shows up.
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What Does a Discretionary Trustee Actually Do That a 3(38) Doesn't?
A 3(38) investment manager covers two of a 401(k) plan's six fiduciary responsibilities. A discretionary trustee can take all six. This post maps each role against the full list.
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What Separates the Best 401(k) Plans From the Rest?
What separates the best 401(k) plans from the rest comes down to three decisions a sponsor controls: automatic plan design, costs someone actually checked, and money that stays in the plan.
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How Do You Find the Right Employee Benefits Consultant for Your Company?
The right employee benefits consultant earns the job all year, not just at renewal, and this guide covers what a good firm actually does, the questions that reveal how they operate, and how to grade the one you already have.
