Committee Plan Strategy Meetings
Prepare Agenda & Exhibits
Plan Design Consulting
Fee Analysis & Benchmarking
Conduct Provider RFP’s
Investment Monitoring
Quarterly Reporting
Investment Menu Design
Investment Advice
Target Date Selection
Participant Services
Investment Education
Investment Advice
Financial Planning
Wealth Management
Strategic Plan Consulting
Organizations like yours create retirement plans to help the organization succeed. You need motivated employees to achieve your goals. A competitive retirement plan will help you attract, retain, and retire the workforce that you want. At Black Box Pension Advocates, we help you leverage your retirement plan so that you can better pursue the goals of your organization.
During a typical plan strategy meeting, topics that might be addressed are:
Consult with committees regarding plan design: Our goal is to help plan sponsors optimize their contribution amounts and allocation formulas. This might include exploring cross-tested plan design features and cash balance plans.
Address employee engagement and satisfaction: a well-established plan is valued by the workforce.
Review participant outcomes: plan features like automatic enrollment and escalation can dramatically improve employee retirement readiness.
Documented Fiduciary Services
Fiduciaries must operate their plan in the best interest of plan participants and beneficiaries. Being a fiduciary comes with liability. Our fiduciary services are designed to help employers satisfy and document their prudent processes.
During a typical fiduciary review meeting, topics that might be addressed include:
Benchmark service providers: comparing fees and services to published industry averages
Conduct provider request for proposals (RFP’s) to compare and negotiate services and fees
Prepare a fee analysis and review the 408(b)(2) disclosures from each service provider.
Monitor investment performance, and advise the committee on investment replacements.
Serve as an investment fiduciary (either 3(21) or 3(38) fiduciary)
Purpose-driven content and advice, when you need it the most.
Enhancing your decision-making with our insights.
Throughout the year we constantly receive and review articles and reports from industry experts, subscription services, the media, and the large service providers. We sort through that information and deliver you the right insights... at the right time. We subscribe to services that improve our consulting and plan-reporting.
Some of our resources include:
Fiduciary Best Practices
Fiduciary Monitoring System - Efficiently monitors your investment lineup and notifies you of changes in performance or criteria, and creates a customized investment policy statement.
Retirement Plan Health Check - Objective reporting on your plan’s health and value, using key plan attributes in comparison to a valid peer group. Attributes may include age-based group deferral rates, average account balances, portfolio diversification by age group and in total, aggregate plan performance, and more.
Industry Reports - Detailed report covering the annual PLANSPONSOR Defined Contribution Study of more than 5,000 plan sponsors in 28 industries.
ERISA Help Desk - Technical help and answers from industry professionals are always within reach so we can inquire about even the most complex questions and situations on your behalf.
Fiduciary Vault - Centralized storage for all plan-related forms and documents, including plan reviews, meeting notes, announcements, and more.
Enhanced Fiduciary Capabilities
Our tools are enhanced through a partnership with Fiduciary Benchmarks, Inc., a leader in plan benchmarking technologies.
Retirement Outcomes Evaluator - Provides a process that promotes better participant outcomes
PlanPoint, PlanProfile, and FeeChecker - Uses provider data that is straight from the source to give you a more complete picture of fees so you can make better decisions
V2.1 Full Benchmarking Report - Helps you analyze the reasonableness of fees, rather than merely knowing what they are
Prudent Fee Management
Expense Analyzer - Provides clarity on plan fees by generating a cohesive analysis and report. Shows immediately whether the plan’s fee structure is competitive.
Fee Comparison and Analysis Evaluation - Creates a comprehensive fee-analysis overview covering total plan fees, including those for investment management, recordkeeping, and advisor/ consultant, as well as plan benefits and features.
Investment Due Diligence and Benchmarking
Investment Due Diligence - Timely research reports from the LPL Financial Research Team, compiling precise quarterly reports to keep your advisor up-to-date on funds and the market.
Fund Line-up Comparison Tool - Compares up to five service provider portfolios for fees and performance, demonstrating relative strengths and weaknesses of fund options.
Your need for competent, objective retirement plan guidance—from an advisor you can trust—has never been greater. That’s why your plan should work with Black Box Pension Advocates, LLC.
A good consultant can be a powerful extension of your retirement plan committee. There are three key tenets for an effective relationship between the consultant and the retirement plan committee:
Meaningful, timely information and research: An experienced retirement plan representative can offer you deep industry insights and knowledge of the regulatory landscape that help enable you to make informed choices for your plan’s individual needs.
Easy access to value-added investments and services: An experienced retirement plan representative can deliver proprietary research that’s designed to help you tap the world’s most talented investment management teams.
Customized service: An experienced retirement plan representative firm is committed to providing what you and your employees deserve and expect—great financial education at enrollment and one-on-one meetings.
Education & Advice for Retirement Plan Participants
Financial Planning for Retirement Plan Participants
Planning, Advice and Education each have their place for retirement plan participants.
We can create a financial plan for plan participants that want additional support and guidance.
Planning is a process where we learn about a participant’s goals, objectives, and current financial situation. Using sophisticated software, we build a plan customized to the unique situation for the individual.
View a 16-page overview of the planning process here
View select pages from a sample financial plan
View a two-page overview of the planning process here
At Black Box Pension Advocates, we can build a financial plan for retirement plan participants that are ready for more advanced planning.
Investment Advice for Retirement Plan Participants
Advice is different from education. Investment advice includes making individualized recommendations to plan participants based on their needs.
Some plan sponsors prefer to offer our Investment Advice Services in addition to our Education Services.
Education for Retirement Plan Participants
We customize our employee education services to the specific needs of each client.
For some of our clients, our role is to leverage the resources available through the recordkeeper. For other clients, we conduct on-site 401(k) enrollment meetings and provide participant-level investment advice.
One thing is consistent for all clients: we help you create the participant communication plan that meets the needs of your particular organization.
Services that we can provide:
Facilitate access to education services available through the recordkeeper
Recommend third-party financial wellness provider
Provide a 401(k) participant call line for plan participants
Conduct onsite group education meetings
Conduct onsite one-on-one education meetings
Provide participant-level investment advice
Provide financial planning and wealth management services
Effective communication programs are multi-channel. We use both traditional channels, as well as the latest technology solutions.
Communication Channels
Paper: Statements, memos, etc.
In-person: Group and individual meetings.
Email: Email communication can come directly from the recordkeeper, or from the plan sponsor, or directly from our offices.
Mobile: Most recordkeepers have mobile access either through a native app or through a website configured for mobile access. However, the quality of the mobile access will vary significantly by recordkeeper.
Call-Center: Call centers provided by the recordkeepers vary widely in what they can offer.
401(k) Hot Line: Your plan participants can call our offices and speak with a financial planner.
Online: Most recordkeepers offer web access and calculators, but the level of sophistication varies widely between the providers. We can familiarize you with the differences so that you can select the recordkeeper that is right for your workplace.
Financial Wellness
“Financial wellness” is knowing that you can retire when you want to retire.
For some of our clients, we implement a full financial wellness program.
We can utilize our own resources at the Black Box Learning Center with participant-facing videos, presentations and calculators.
Or, we can partner with Financial Finesse to deliver a comprehensive wellness program to your workforce.
Information about Financial Finesse is in the links below:
Executive Benefits
Is your company looking for tax-advantaged ways to compensate highly-paid employees who are maximizing their 401k contributions?
Are these employees looking for a way to accumulate more tax-deferred earnings for retirement in addition to reducing tax liability?
Are you looking for a benefit to attract and retain executive employees?
CONSIDER a Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation Plan (NQDC)
NQDC plans can help business owners attract and retain high-performing employees.
NQDC is a way to defer compensation which allows employees to save additional tax-deferred compensation beyond qualified plan limits.
Savings in an NQDC are often deferred for five or 10 years, or until the employee reaches retirement.
NQDCs don’t have the same restrictions as qualified retirement plans.
Total Rewards, Employee Benefit Plans & Group Insurance
How does your retirement plan fit in your overall employee benefit package?
Total rewards encompasses six components — compensation, benefits, work-life effectiveness, recognition, performance management, and talent development — that collectively define an organization's strategy to attract, motivate, retain and engage employees. These components represent the tool kit from which an organization chooses to offer and align a value proposition that results in satisfied, engaged and productive employees who, in turn, create desired business performance and results.
At Black Box Pension Advocates, LLC, our focus is to make your retirement plan an effective part of your Total Rewards strategy.
Through our alliance with employee benefit consultants, we can help you evaluate your overall employee benefit plan and compensation strategy.
Contact Us Today
Plan sponsors retain Black Box Pension Advocates because we provide quality services and value. We are retirement plan specialists, we value simplicity and we are always easy to work with.