2016 Service Stars  | Individual

Tom Danielewicz

Helping a client navigate a complicated transition during an acquisition

RECORDKEEPER EMPLOYER: Correll Co.
TENURE WITH COMPANY: 23 years
BIO: Thomas Danielewicz, CPC [Certified Pension Consultant], is director of daily valuation services at Correll Co. in Hickory Hills, Illinois. Employed by Correll since 1993, Danielewicz has over 22 years of experience in employee benefit plan administration. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and is a magna cum laude graduate of Wabash College.
CLIENT: Isopure Co. LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Glanbia PLC
CLIENT INDUSTRY: Wholesale/Sports nutrition
CLIENT HEADQUARTERS: Hauppauge, New York
CLIENT PLAN ASSETS: $6 million
CLIENT PLAN PARTICIPANTS: 50

Small 401(k)s can seem simple when compared with large corporate defined contribution (DC) plans, but that does not mean their dealings with audits and acquisitions are any less complex. In the nine years that Delia Mercado, vice president of finance at Isopure Co. LLC, has been working with Tom Danielewicz, Isopure has gone through both transactions, as well as a merger with a private equity group.

Through it all, Danielewicz, director of daily valuation services at Correll Co., in Hickory Hills, Illinois, “has been a lifesaver, my go-to person,” Mercado says. “These plans are complicated, and I’m in a smaller company, doing all the plan-related work. Tom has never failed to have the information I need at my fingertips. I have total faith and trust in him; he really understands our plan needs.”

This type of customer service and personalization helps set Correll apart from the “big box” providers, says Danielewicz, who personally received a record nine nominations for PLANSPONSOR’s Service Star Award.

The most recent transition for Isopure was its acquisition by Glanbia PLC in September 2014. Correll is accustomed to dealing with small customized plans such as Isopure’s, so Danielewicz was called on to help the two firms navigate the ins and outs of the acquisition as it related to Isopure’s two defined contribution plans.

When Glanbia purchased Isopure, it took steps to merge the latter’s plan into its own. This eventually required a liquidation and transfer into the parent firm’s plan, which necessitated coordination between Danielewicz and Glanbia’s existing recordkeeper.

Isopure has a 401(k) plan, plus a separate profit-sharing plan that is valued annually. Because of the complicated nature of the Isopure plans—actually one plan treated as two, Danielewicz says—the process was unusually complex.

In anticipation of the merger, Isopure went through intricate compliance testing for “everything from basic refunds to forfeiture allocation and worked with participants who needed to take a portion of rollover and allocate it differently,” Danielewicz says. “Once the acquiring group got involved, we worked with them through deadline and held a number of conference calls to explain why Isopure was doing things the way it was. The task was much more [difficult] than anyone anticipated.”

With the transition, “we had to liquidate everything and transfer over to Glanbia,” Mercado notes. “Tom has been so professional in dealing with us, Glanbia and the new provider. He’s right there for me all the time.”

The same held true when Isopure went through an audit several years ago to ensure the plans’ compliance. “He was able to supply documents quickly,” Mercado says. “Something I couldn’t find in my files, he always had.” —Sue O’Keefe
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