DC-Assessment

As a benefit plan sponsor or administrator, you need to keep your administration procedures up to date in order to comply with regulations. And now this need is more urgent than ever.

Recent regulations such as the Pension Protection Act of 2006 have introduced a series of new requirements in the areas of plan administration, compliance and plan investments. These requirements, as well as the recent focus on Defined Contribution (DC) plan market-related fees and transparency, make now a good time to take a fresh, intensive look at your plan architecture. DC-Assessment, a combined service offered by Sibson Consulting and Segal Advisors, Inc., our SEC-registered investment consulting affiliate, can help.

DC-Assessment provides independent consulting advice that addresses the implications of new and emerging plan requirements, helps you develop an action plan for enhancing current processes and procedures, and assists with ongoing plan compliance.

This combined service offering includes a review of the four key aspects of DC plan management: Administration, Compliance, Communication and Investment – with an eye toward helping you meet your fiduciary responsibilities now and in the future. The Investment component of DC-Assessment is provided by Segal Advisors. To learn more about the DC-Assessment services they offer, click here.

A basic outline of Sibson’s DC-Assessment offerings can be found below. For more information, please contact your Sibson consultant or click here to request a brief telephone conference to see how DC-Assessment can serve you and your business.

Compliance

Evaluating trust set-up and arrangement
Reviewing responsibilities of administrators and delegates
Ensuring that processes and procedures comply with regulations

Administration

Reviewing effectiveness of technology and systems
Reviewing procedure for processing statements
Evaluating contract and service guarantees
Reviewing reporting functionality
Evaluating transactions processing
Assessing capability of retirement planning tools to project balances/benefits and combine DB results with DC results
Evaluating implementation of new plans/participant groups

Communication

Assessing employee communications and, if necessary, developing a plan to communicate changes and help plan sponsors meet 404(c) requirements
Ensuring that communications to employees are clear and compelling
Evaluating frequency of plan communications

Investment

To learn more about the investment related aspects of DC-Assessment, please click here.

A series of issues of our Spotlight publication, focused on compliance, administrative, and investment-related issues, will provide some background and early insight on the observations and analyses which led to the creation of our DC-Assessment service offering. Links to each issue appear below:

July 2007 Spotlight, "Meeting the Challenges Introduced by PPA’06: Preparing to Satisfy New and Revised Compliance Requirements".
September 2007 Spotlight, "Anticipating Additional Changes to the Status Quo: PPA '06 Requires Revising Retirement Plan Administration (Yet Again) ".
November 2007 Spotlight, "Post-PPA '06 Reviews of DC Plan Investments to Ensure Safe Harbor Fiduciary Protection".*

*This issue of Spotlight is a publication of Segal Advisors, Sibson Consulting's investment consulting affiliate.