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Products May 15, 2012
Principal Resource Evaluates Retirement Plan Fees
May 15, 2012 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Principal Financial Group created an online resource to help plan sponsors understand the new retirement plan disclosure regulations.
Reported by Tara Cantore
The tool called Assessing Retirement Plan Value offers tips and tools for understanding and evaluating retirement plan fees, services and overall value.
Financial professionals can use the tool to help clients comply with a key fiduciary obligation: evaluating whether plan fees are reasonable for the services received.
“There is more to assessing retirement plan fees than comparing numbers. The better informed plan sponsors are about the services received for those fees, the better equipped they are to make an effective evaluation,” said Greg Burrows, senior vice president of retirement and investor services at The Principal.
The online program offers:
- An explanation of retirement plan costs;
- Tips on how to review plan services;
- Help navigating cost considerations;
- Tips for evaluating fee reasonableness; and
- Tips for addressing participant questions.
The Principal also has a Fee Reasonableness Review Checklist, a sample template financial professionals can share with plan fiduciaries to help guide them through the evaluation process.
“We’ve been delivering the required enhanced disclosures to plan sponsors since last year,” said Burrows. “We wanted to get ahead of the deadlines so there would be no surprises for financial professionals and plan sponsor clients. This new online hub is one more step in ensuring that plan sponsors understand their plan costs and have what they need to fulfill their fiduciary obligations.”