5 Signs indicating that you might have fiduciary liability.
In order to avoid fiduciary liability, you, as a fiduciary, should pay attention to the expenses of the 401k plan you provide, and its performance, therefore: If the funds provided in your 401k plan have unreasonably high expense ratio, or advisor services are too expensive, then probably you should investigate more to find out if...Read More
Why 401k Participant Education is Vital for Plan Sponsors
A Plan Sponsor has many responsibilities. A good advisor can assist by helping the plan to reduce fees and meet fiduciary obligations. Ultimately the goal of the plan and the Plan Sponsor is to help set their employees up for a well-funded retirement
403(b) Plan Fiduciaries Take The Baton from 401K Litigation
The Story that Never Gets Old 401(k) litigation has been on going for nearly ten years and now lawyers began to vigorously extend it over to 403(b) plans. Top national educational institutions are in need of educating themselves to withstand litigation and defend themselves in court. Recent years have brought more than a dozen class-action lawsuits...Read More
13 Questions Retirement Plan Advisors Should Ask Plan Sponsors
Retirement Plan Advisors usually have their own personal methods and strategies in their business practice when approaching retirement plans. Advisors who represent the interests of retirement plans must take on a role of an advocate for the plan. Those who possess all of the necessary information and tools must keep the sponsors updated on the...Read More
Quick Guide: Asking Plan Sponsors the Right Questions
One of the first things to keep in mind (as they say in the legal profession) is that often the best kinds of questions to ask are ones that you already know the answer to. Nine times out of ten, if you ask a plan sponsor if they’ve recently done a diversification or cost analysis...Read More
The Sooner You Know About SEC’s Newly Proposed Rule the Better
With the DOL’s Fiduciary Rule seemingly gone, what’s next on the block for fiduciary regulation? The Security and Exchange commission has been planning its own fiduciary rule and regulation rehaul as well. So now that the Federal Register has published the SEC’s proposed reform to investment advice policy, we have a better idea of what...Read More
How Much Do You Really Know About Avoiding Fiduciary Liability?
If you are a plan fiduciary, then under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), fiduciaries can be held personally liable for losses to a benefit plan incurred as a result of their alleged errors or omissions or breach of their fiduciary duties. It is a tough law aimed to make plan fiduciaries...Read More
3 Must Have Tools To Grow Your 401K Business
Growing your 401(k) business is about delivering value, plain and simple. If you demonstrate unique value in your proposal by optimizing costs and benefits of a retirement plan, then you can easily justify your fees. But what do you with that great analysis when CFO doesn’t respond? This is why we released Larkspur Executive, a...Read More
What you need to know about the Lower Fee Classes Report.
Like an MRI machine for a doctor, the Low Fee Alternative report allows an advisor to diagnose problems within a plan. For example, it can identify closet index funds in a plan that is paying for an expensive actively managed fund that is quantitively similar to index funds. One of the pillars of fiduciary rule...Read More
8 Mistakes Advisors Can Make When Approaching a Retirement Plan
1. Not enough research. Many advisors automatically assume that financial planning expertise will translate into plan success. You need to actually learn the space and study governance best practices plus lingo to have any chance. 2. Lack of sales experience makes it difficult for some advisors to approach a plan sponsor and represent their financial analysis...Read More