Montrose Environmental Group, Inc.

NOMINATOR COMMENTS

We have been the adviser on the Montrose Environmental Group 401(k) plan since February 2017. At that time, the plan had approximately $15 million in assets and 750 participants. As of December 2024, it had grown to almost $200 million in assets and 2,900 participants.

Much of this growth is due to mergers and acquisitions activity by Montrose, with approximately four acquisitions per year since 2017. Despite this, the company has maintained a very strong and beneficial plan for its participants, sustaining a participation rate of approximately 97% and average contribution rate greater than 8%. The company continues to strive for better participation and deferral rates, having implemented numerous proven plan design features to that end, and it actively and regularly leverages its growth to negotiate lower-cost investments and recordkeeping/administration costs. In addition, Montrose strives to offer educational sessions for employees at least monthly.

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PLANSPONSOR: Please cite any noteworthy initiatives you have taken in the past 24 to 36 months that have produced results to improve your plan, and describe the results.

Montrose Environmental: In 2022, we:

• Conducted a formal recordkeeper request for proposals to evaluate John Hancock from a service, investment and fee perspective. Although we decided to remain with the firm, the RFP allowed us to secure a fee reduction of 3.5 basis points. The current recordkeeping fee is now 9.5 bps;
• Implemented a qualified automatic contribution arrangement safe harbor plan design with automatic enrollment, automatic escalation and a safe harbor match; and
• Implemented a mega backdoor Roth plan design to allow participants to maximize savings and retirement readiness.

In 2024, we:

• Conducted a formal RFP of our existing target-date funds. After a thorough evaluation of the various peer funds—i.e., for equity exposure, glide path, asset class exposure, passive vs. active strategy—we made a transition to Nuveen Lifecycle Index Institutional. This change has allowed participants to achieve more consistent outperformance at a significantly reduced fee; and
• Transitioned from the Nuveen Lifecycle Index Institutional (net expense ratio 0.10%) to the Nuveen Lifecycle Index CIT J (net expense ratio 0.06%) when the collective investment trust became available to us and Hub in late 2024.

Additionally, in the past 24 to 36 months, Montrose has evaluated, selected and made available a number of CITs to offer lower-cost investment options to participants. The plan’s current investment menu includes five low-cost index funds (large blend, mid blend, small blend, foreign large blend and intermediate core bond) and CITs in the large-cap value, large-cap growth and target-date fund investment categories.

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PLANSPONSOR: Please explain the ongoing governance efforts of those involved with the plan meant to ensure its compliance and effective operation.

Montrose Environmental: With the support of Hub International and John Hancock, we conduct quarterly investment and plan reviews with our plan trustees and fiduciaries. During these reviews, we evaluate individual fund performance using a comprehensive scoring system that considers 12 key factors, including investment style, performance, risk and qualitative aspects. This score provides a clear, data-driven foundation for evaluating investments and enabling informed decisions. As part of the reviews, the committee receives ongoing fiduciary education. Each review also includes a detailed analysis of plan assets, participation rates, average contribution levels and performance benchmarks compared with industry peers.

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This year, for our Plan Sponsor of the Year profiles, we are publishing Q&As based on the finalists’ applications and nominator comments. Responses are edited and may be paraphrased. In cases where the finalist self-nominated or, on its application, referred judges to the nomination for the answer, we have attributed those nominator answers to the plan sponsor.