Provider Benchmarking

Balancing Fees and Services

Do you know how much your retirement plan costs? ERISA requires that retirement plans must have reasonable plan expenses. But how do you know if the fees are reasonable? And what does "reasonable" mean anyway? The DOL doesn’t have specific benchmarks, but generally recommends that plans look at live bids from other providers every three to five years to see how the pricing stacks up. Through our exclusive tools and services, we can create a thorough market analysis so that you have a solid read on the current market.

B3 Provider Analysis™: Live Bid Benchmarking

Benchmarking can be a piece of cake with our proprietary B3 Provider Analysis, a leading live-bid benchmarking system. You’ll be able to compare the cost and quality of your current provider against the capabilities of other bidders. The comparisons you get are based on live provider RFP responses that take into account your plan’s complexity, parameters, investment lineup considerations and service requirements. The analysis compares 400+ data points in key areas, including record keeping, investment management, compliance services, employee education and technology.

Fees reviewed include:

• Investment management: A percentage of the assets invested and deducted from the return.
• Asset/wrap fee: These are additional fees layered on top of the total investment fees.
• 12b-1: Paid by mutual funds from fund assets for broker commissions, marketing, expenses and other administrative services.
• Shareholder servicing: Revenues shared by the mutual fund company with the service provider.
• Sub-TA: Sub-transfer agent fees for record keeping and other services.

B1 Fee Benchmarking Report™: Periodic Fee Benchmarking Against National Average

The DOL recommends taking retirement plans out to market every three to five years. Our B3 system has that covered. But what do you do between the full RFPs to ensure that your plan fees are reasonable? That’s where our B1 Fee Benchmarking Report comes in. This quick and simple, fee-only benchmarking report compares your plan’s fees against 105,000 other plans.

By using a combination of B3 and B1 reports over multiple years, you’re following a best practice in meeting fiduciary responsibilities under ERISA — which means your company and your employees will be positioned for success.