How We Help

Corporate Retirement Plan Services

TFO’s Retirement Plan Services division advises hundreds of institutions and thousands of plan participants on their retirement plans. Our experience and dedicated retirement plan resources provide distinctive solutions combining extensive capabilities and research with a high level of customized service.

Questions That Might Be On Your Mind

How can we reduce the business’ fiduciary liability?
How can we minimize the costs of our plan?
What value can an adviser provide to our plan as a whole?
What value can an adviser provide to the participants in our plan?

Our team stands ready to provide your investment committee with a personalized investment consulting relationship built around your needs.

Our disciplined consulting process is designed to meet the high standards required to make prudent fiduciary decisions or shift much of the investment liability to us as an ERISA 3(38) fiduciary.

This process has been used by many institutional investors including healthcare organizations, private and publicly traded companies, education endowments, defined benefit plans, defined contribution plans, investment committees, and other non-profit organizations, family offices, and religious organizations.

We help you (the plan sponsor) and your employees by providing the guidance and fiduciary expertise necessary to provide a meaningful benefit. We also help free your employees from the burden of constructing and monitoring their own portfolio while developing a plan to get them to retirement.

Chris wintersDirector of Retirement Plan Services and retirement Plan Strategist Get to know our team

Our open architecture approach frees participants from the burden of constructing and monitoring their own portfolio and is intended to provide fiduciary protection to plan sponsors by offering professional management of retirement assets.

We have experience working with many types of retirement plans and take a consultative approach to finding the right solution for you and your employees. Our Retirement Plan Services divisions offers the following key advantages for your plan and its participants:

Fiduciary Liability Protection

In today’s litigious society, plan sponsors are rightfully concerned about the liability inherent in offering a 401(k) plan. And the individuals responsible for those plans are increasingly aware of their own personal liability.

As an independent, fee-only adviser, we receive no compensation from the investments we select for your plan.

This objectivity allows us to put your best interest first and serve as a fiduciary to your plan.

ERISA provides that a plan sponsor can delegate the significant responsibility (and therefore significant liability) of the selection/monitoring/replacing functions to an ERISA 3(38) – defined “investment manager” who, upon delegation becomes an ERISA section 405(d)(1) defined “independent fiduciary.” Only a Registered Investment Adviser, a bank, or an insurance company qualify to accept appointment.

Fee Transparency

Are you confident you know all of the expenses of your current 401(k) plan?

The recent flurry of lawsuits alleging breaches of fiduciary duty have centered on the answer to that question. Unfortunately, due to the pervasive practices (revenue-sharing, 12b-1 fees, sub-transfer agency fees, etc.) of the retirement plan industry, many plan sponsors are not confident in their knowledge of the total expenses of their plans

Access to Institutional Funds

Institutional investments also have significantly lower fees and turnover than comparable retail funds. And there are never any loads, 12b-1 fees or other unseemly sales charges associated with these funds.

These investment vehicles are used by some of the world’s largest corporations in the management of their retirement plans and may require a certain minimum asset level per fund.

Adviser Managed Portfolios

Traditionally, 401(k) plan participants are provided an extensive line-up of investment options.

At TFO Wealth Partners, we go beyond suggestions and examples. We construct and manage an array of portfolios for each participant to choose from.

The participant needs only to select the single portfolio that best reflects their risk-tolerance and investment objective and our professional investment managers do the rest.

Dedicated and Specialized Team

Our full-time dedicated retirement plan resources free employers from the burden of constructing and monitoring their own portfolio, and provides fiduciary protection to plan sponsors by delivering customized professional management of retirement assets.

Participant Services – Individualized Advice and Education

Your TFO Wealth Partners adviser can provide advice and education to your plan participants.

In addition, a targeted communication campaign should be implemented to provide useful information by analyzing plan demographics, investment patterns and savings habits.

Campaign can be done via multiple channels including but not limited to mailings, emails, posters.

Messages most effectively delivered during an individual one-on-one meeting with your TFO Wealth Partners adviser.

Our Due Diligence Process

Our consultative approach to plan evaluation provides plan sponsors with a detailed analysis of all aspects of their retirement plan.

Fees have driven much of the conversation in recent years, but fees are only one part of the equation. TFO’s approach to conducting a thorough Due Diligence Review is intended to provide plan sponsors with a deeper understanding of all aspects of their plan to determine if it meets the overall goals of the organization and its employees.

Fiduciary Roles and Responsibilities

For many plan sponsors, fiduciary liability has become a top concern. Our goal is to help you understand your fiduciary responsibility and evaluate the liabilities. We can take on a fiduciary role as an ERISA 3(38) or ERISA 3(21) fiduciary, shifting a large portion of the fiduciary liability of a retirement plan to our firm.

Participant Advice/Education Services

Personalized participant advice is essential in helping individuals invest, save, and plan for retirement. We provide individual advice in an effort to ensure your participants will meet their long-term goals and needs.

Employee Retirement Readiness

Our personalized advice and our evaluation process is intended to help participants with their income replacement needs and helps put a plan in place designed to meet those needs.

Employee Investment Decisions

Without the appropriate advice and education, many retirement plan participants make investment decisions based on emotion often fueled by the short-term predictions and prognostications of the financial media. We take a disciplined approach to retirement investment decisions by carefully examining the long-term needs of each participant and helping them balance their asset allocation with their overall investment and savings plan.

Plan Investment Options Evaluation

Fee arrangements in retirement plans can be complicated and confusing. Our process evaluates your plan fee arrangements helping you understand what you are paying and who you are paying and if those fees are reasonable. We utilize low cost institutional mutual funds that do not contain revenue sharing arrangements. We work hard to ensure that our process and fees are fully transparent and easily understandable.

Plan Provisions

We evaluate the plan structure to determine if the plan contains the provisions that meet the needs of the organization. We examine items such as eligibility, contribution types, including Pre-Tax and Roth 401(k) options, safe harbor, profit sharing, auto-enrollment, vesting, distribution, and loan options. A properly structured plan that strives to meet the needs of the entire organization can provide desirable results.

Ready to review your current wealth plan?

Getting started is easy. Set a time to talk.

Let’s Talk