401(k) & Other Workplace Retirement Plans

In a whitepaper released by Chubb and Groom Law Group, they discuss the surge in ERISA litigation against fiduciaries of employer-sponsored retirement plans, regardless of size, that spans across many types of companies, industries, and institutions. Although the responsibilities and liabilities that come with being a fiduciary on a plan should, and certainly need to be, addressed when vetting providers and advisors in the marketplace, these, unfortunately, are not commonly discussed. This leaves plan sponsors mostly unaware of the risks involved when they offer a plan, leaving them ill-equipped to take the necessary steps in mitigating potential liability.

We help businesses design a plan that helps address their business’ needs. It is always about designing the right plan, not just buying a ‘standardized’ solution. We help you tailor your plan according to your needs and objectives. An example may include allowing higher contributions to the business owner, key personnel or those next-in-line. Another aspect might be structuring the plan better to add incentives for your key employees as a means to help retain them.

There are strict requirements regarding your fiduciary oversight and ongoing responsibilities to monitor the plan’s investments and how your plan benchmarks. All too often business owners and plan trustees have a misconception that this is already ‘being done for them’, leaving themselves exposed to the inherent risks that come with offering a plan to their employees.

But the reality is the business owner or plan trustee(s) are still on the hook for these responsibilities. By allowing us to evaluate your plan, you will have, at minimum, a well-thought-out evaluation of, and recommendations for, your plan, which leaves a written document trail as evidence of the fiduciary process. This aspect of helping alleviate fiduciary exposures and helping protect the company and its trustee(s) is not common in most 401(k)s today.

Having a defensive strategy in your employees’ accounts can help reduce risks of losses during major market downturns like the ones experienced in 2008 and most recently, the declines caused by the COVID-19 health crisis. This allows employees to participate when markets are favorable, but then provides them with defensive action when markets are unfavorable, helping employees’ retirement funds be better protected.

This is especially important because significant losses could really set employees back, many of whom are already ill-prepared for retirement. This one aspect alone makes Global View Capital Advisors much different than many other 401(k) plan providers.

Rather than just being directed to a 1(800) number when administrative questions arise or for your employees to be sent to a website only to get generic answers that often don’t satisfy, part of our duty in servicing our plans is ongoing personal support to you, your delegates, and your employees. That means having dedicated account and relationship managers, in addition to having access to our licensed advisors for one-on-one financial strategy meetings for your employees, done either on- or off-site or even virtually.

These individualized planning meetings are a unique aspect of our service offering because our licensed advisors can actually render advice and guidance to your employees on financial matters beyond just their 401(k)s.  This includes discussions around budgeting, proper insurance protection, ensuring adequate reserves and most importantly, properly planning for their future with a focus on providing clarity on the steps they need to do. This focus around increasing participant education helps your employees become better engaged and can help improve plan participation as well. The individualized planning sessions come at no incremental costs to your employees and is part of our service to our clients.