Retirement Plan Consulting
Your retirement plan is a fiduciary responsibility before it is a benefit
MTP Private Wealth at Farther advises employers on company retirement plans. We work on whichever platform serves the plan, and we put our fiduciary role in writing.
In short
A retirement plan consultant helps an employer choose and monitor the plan’s investments, benchmark its fees, document fiduciary decisions, and keep the plan compliant. We serve as a 3(21) co-fiduciary or a 3(38) investment manager, which determines how much of that liability stays with your company.
The situation
Somebody at your company is a plan fiduciary
If you select or monitor the plan’s investments, you owe participants a fiduciary duty, and the standard is not good intentions. It is a prudent process you can produce evidence of, years after the fact.
Most of the plans we review were set up competently and then left alone. The fund menu is a few cycles out of date, nobody has benchmarked the fees since the plan was a third of its current size, the committee has no minutes, and the advisor of record has never put fiduciary status in writing.
None of that is negligence. It is what happens when the plan is one item on a long list. It is also exactly what fee litigation and Department of Labor examinations look at.
How we work
Four things we do that change the plan's exposure
Fiduciary coverage, in writing
We serve as a 3(21) co-fiduciary or a 3(38) investment manager depending on how much of the decision you want to keep, and we state which one in the service agreement. Ask any advisor to state their fiduciary status in writing.
Documented investment process
An investment policy statement, a monitoring schedule, and committee minutes that record what you looked at and why you decided as you did. Fiduciary compliance is judged on evidence, so the paperwork is the defense.
Fees you can actually see
Recordkeeping, advisory, fund expense ratios, and revenue sharing added up into one all-in number, then compared against plans of similar size. Most sponsors find the total is well above what they thought.
Administration that stays off your desk
The reason plans drift is that the plan is one of forty things the HR director handles. We take the recurring work: the reviews, the notices, the vendor management, the questions from participants.
No platform of our own
We do not care whose platform your plan sits on
We consult on plans at Vanguard, at Fidelity, and at the newer technology-led recordkeepers that have made small plans considerably cheaper to run. We do not own a recordkeeper and we do not get paid more for steering you to one.
Sponsors assume otherwise, and the assumption keeps them from asking for help.
Partners since 1999
Chris and John have advised on company plans through four distinct eras of plan pricing.
Which mostly means they have watched sponsors overpay for arrangements that were competitive when they were signed and then quietly stopped being so.
Plan types
The plans we consult on
Retirement plans are not one product. Which one fits depends on your headcount, your profit consistency, and how much the owners want to put away.
401(k) plans
Plan design, fee benchmarking, investment menu oversight, and fiduciary coverage in writing. The plan most employers already have and few have reviewed lately.
Read more→Cash balance plans
A defined benefit plan layered on the 401(k), letting owners in peak earning years make deductible contributions well beyond 401(k) limits.
Read more→SIMPLE and SEP IRAs
Lower-administration plans that suit smaller teams, and a clear read on when a business has outgrown one and should move to a 401(k).
Read more→Nonprofit and 403(b) plans
Governance and oversight for the 403(b), including the legacy annuity contracts and multi-vendor arrangements these plans tend to accumulate. The work extends to the organization's own investments: reserves, endowment, and the committee that oversees them.
Read more→
Where to start
A plan review, and what it tells you
This is the first engagement for nearly every sponsor we work with. It is diagnostic, and it stands on its own.
- An all-in cost figure, including what comes out of participant accounts.
- A benchmark against plans of comparable size and complexity.
- A read on your current advisor's fiduciary status, if any.
- Review of the investment menu against the plan document and policy statement.
- Gaps in documentation that would be a problem under examination.
- Whether your plan design still fits your headcount and your goals.
Common questions
What sponsors ask us
No. We consult on plans held at Vanguard, Fidelity, and the newer low-cost recordkeepers, and we have no ownership or revenue relationship with any of them. Sponsors often assume working with an advisor means moving platforms. It does not.
If nobody has told you otherwise in writing, it is likely your company and the people who select or monitor the investments. Ask any advisor to state their fiduciary status in writing.
We work with plans well under a million dollars in assets. Small plans often need this more, not less, because pricing is worse at that size and there is rarely anybody internally who owns the plan. Some of the newer recordkeeping platforms have changed the math for smaller employers considerably.
The initial review is a conversation and an analysis, and we discuss ongoing fees with you directly once we know the plan's size and what it needs. We do not publish a fee schedule because the scope varies with the plan.
Chris Masso and John Torrence have advised on company retirement plans as partners since 1999, through several cycles of plan pricing and technology. Nick Pantle has worked with company plans since 2017 and holds the Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor credential.
Next step
Find out what your plan actually costs
A plan review starts with a short conversation and your current statements. You will end up with an all-in cost figure and a benchmark, whether or not you change anything.