| | Benefits & Administration | | When Procurement Is Involved in the RFP Process | | “More frequently we’re starting to see requests
for proposals (RFPs) [for retirement plan service providers] go through
procurement departments,” says Kathleen Kelly, managing partner at Compass
Financial Partners in Greensboro, North Carolina. Stephen Popper, managing
director at SageView Advisory Group in Boston, explains that procurement
departments for large organizations are in charge of any outside engagement of
services or supplies, from furniture to fiduciary investment services. “Their job
is to get something for a business unit.” According to Popper, some procurement
departments are involved in every step of the RFP process.Read more > | | The use of automatic enrollment is expanding, a
survey from the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association
(DCIIA) finds. Plan sponsors of the larger plans surveyed (greater than $200
million in assets – 185 plans) continue to adopt automatic enrollment, with 62%
of survey respondents indicating that they utilize this feature, compared to
56% in 2012 and just 44% in 2010. Among plans with $50 million to $200 million
in assets, 59% use auto enrollment, with $5 million to $50 million in assets,
38% use it, and with less than $5 million in assets, 24% do. The survey looked
at the reasons retirement plan sponsors do not use automatic plan features.Read more > | | Non-ERISA 403(b)s Off the Radar | | Until regulations passed in 2007, 403(b) plans didn’t fall under the same Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) regulatory oversight to which 401(k) plans were subjected. In fact, says Ellie Lowder, tax-exempt and governmental plan consultant at TSA Consulting and Training Services, before the regulations changed, 403(b) plans were not considered plans, but simply “arrangements,” in which an employer provided a payroll slot to a provider and then remitted it to the provider. Plan sponsors were only required to play a very limited role in plan oversight and administration, she tells PLANSPONSOR. However, with the 2007 regulations only three types of 403(b)s are exempted from ERISA provisions.Read more > |
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