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Summary: Massive study by Larkspur-RiXtrema uncovers deficiencies and shows opportunities. On this podcast you will find out about this historic study. We undertook first of a kind research study by looking at 52,529 qualified plan lineups. Using quantitative methods, we distinguished true active funds vs. ‘closet indexers’. Turns out that majority of funds held by retirement plans are not truly active funds and could be replaced with passive funds. However, a pileup into passive funds will create a very fragile financial market. Learn our conclusions and recommendations for the coming realignment.

Luke St. Angelo

09 Jul 2019

WHY SHOULD YOU BE A 3(21) OR A 3(38) FIDUCIARY?

One of the biggest incentives for plan sponsors to seek a fiduciary to assist with their retirement plan is to share the burden of providing sound advice to all participants enrolled in the plan. Since 2009, shortly before the Department of Labor started requiring providers to more clearly disclose their fees via the 408(b)(2) rule, roughly 83,000 ERISA lawsuits have been filed in federal district courts. Poor performance or high fees can be grounds for litigation. As a matter of fact, plans suffering from high fees or poor investment returns are common enough that they’ve given rise to their own litigation industry. As a plan sponsor, you have a fiduciary...

Yon Perullo

26 Jun 2019

Technology so good you can taste it.

Beyond Meat has had a wild first month of public trading, rising over 500% from the IPO price before a few analysts urged caution to those expecting incredible financial results. But as soon as the analysts stopped downgrading the stock (to hold), the meteoric rise continued and the stock briefly eclipsed $200. While the IPO ranks as just a fraction of the size of the other notable IPOs of 2019, the performance since IPO has been the best by far. Top IPOs of 2019 So Far Of course, seeing shares sold at an IPO price of $25 increase 5-fold within weeks of trading may indicate a mispricing on the part...

Gennady Prokofyev

25 Jun 2019

Easy Steps for Retirement Plan Sponsors to Minimize Their Liability

In a recent article by JD Supra, we learned that being a plan sponsor is quite a difficult task, because besides setting up a plan, one needs to watch it constantly due to the liability exposure. Every plan sponsor should do their best to minimize their liability and courtesy of author, Ary Rosenbaum, here is a list of simple steps how you can do it: Being aware of your fiduciary duty. Every 401(k) plan sponsor is a fiduciary, which requires them to act in the best interest of their client (plan participants), and if they don’t do their job properly, they might be liable for any damages their actions have...

Gennady Prokofyev

25 Jun 2019

Prospecting Plans with the Lowest Ratings in Planisphere

The Ask: To win business, every financial advisor, should do their best to analyze nearby 401(k) plans. The key point here is benchmarking and choosing the right target plans. Our clients frequently ask us to help them find the best plans for prospecting, however, requires taking specific steps. The Problem: While you can find a lot of publicly available information on 401(k) plans, you need to show a plan sponsor that their plan is benchmarked correctly and that it has room for improvement. There needs to be a way to put their plan in context, because knowing the plan data is not enough. You also need to show it in...