The No Surprises Act: A Cost Saving Opportunity for Employer Plan Sponsors
I was very lucky that when I started as an ERISA attorney in 1998, I worked as a staff attorney for a third-party administrator (TPA). It gave me insight and experience that I could never have gotten as an attorney working...more
When I was a kid in day school in Brooklyn, we had a classmate whose shtick was that he was rich. He wasn’t rich, his father was a pa- thologist who worked at a city hospital, his mother didn’t work, and they rented a nice...more
What makes a good retirement plan financial advisor? Well, it takes attention to detail, an understanding of what the role to entails, and dedication to the client. In addition, what I find is the way a good financial advisor...more
Whether it’s a partner in your business or a business partnership with another plan provider, it needs to be the right fit. I worked for two third-party administrators (TPAs) where partnership mismatches helped doom them....more
When working with other plan providers, trust is the biggest underpinning. Without it, you have nothing else. If you can’t trust the plan provider you’re working with, then why are you in business with them?...more
Call me crazy, but I think less is more. If you have a 401(k) plan and another plan (usually a defined benefit or cash balance plan), there may be reasons why you would want multiple third-party administrators (TPAs)....more
Ideas To Increase 401(k) Event Attendance - Getting 401(k) plan sponsors and plan providers to attend in-person live events were difficult before COVID. Since COVID, it’s been close to impossible to get decent attendance...more
401(k) Errors That Should Require A Plan Provider Change - Change for the sake of change is a bad idea, you need a reason for it. There are certain plan errors when 401(k) plan sponsors should consider change and that...more
I always say one of the beauties of retirement plans is not one is alike. They are like snowflakes because every plan sponsor has a different retirement plan need based on the size of their business, profits, and demographics...more
Organization Ideas For 401(k) Plan Sponsors To Limit Liability Organization tools always pop up for sale after New Year’s because a lot of people want to try to keep their resolutions. My local Costco always trots out the...more
Unless you delegate a fiduciary function to a plan fiduciary such as an ERISA 3(16) and 3(38)fiduciary, it’s your call on things. When a third-party administrator (TPA) decides on their own that you will refund deferrals...more
When it comes to my law practice, I have an open phone call policy. I entertain phone calls from financial advisors and TPAs around the country and try to help them by answering questions regarding their current clients or...more
401(k) Plan Sponsors Should Focus On What The Government Is Focusing On - In the movie Casino, Robert DeNiro as Sam “Ace” Rothstein wanted to take on the Nevada Gaming Board after they denied his request for his license....more
When Your Fired 401(k) TPA Takes Things Personally - Aside from Airplane!, my favorite movie of all time is The Godfather and the underpinning is the complete and utter transformation of Michael Corleone from “college...more
A bad third-party administrator (TPA) can be a weapon of mass destruction. So when plan sponsors focus on price or using their payroll provider in selecting the TPA, they neglect the most important attribute of a good TPA:...more
The Problems With Free and Small Retirement Plans - There is no such thing as a free lunch. There is no such thing as free advice. The more years I spend in the retirement plan business; I know that there is no such thing...more
I hate moving. I’ve lived in the same house now for 16 years and I dread the idea of moving and I haven’t put the house up for sale. That’s why I always loathe when there has to be a change of third-party administrators...more
In another consolidation for the retirement plan business, Ascensus, a recordkeeping services provider and third-party administrator announced it has reached an agreement to merge with Newport Group....more
It happened three years ago and I still can’t make sense of it. Where I come from, we call it chutzpah. The third-party administrator (TPA) of a 401(k) plan that I was serving as an ERISA §3(16) administrator overpaid the...more
The snowball effect is a term for a process that starts from something that is small and builds upon itself, becoming larger and also perhaps potentially dangerous or disastrous. The idea is that an avalanche can be started...more
I was a Vice President of a synagogue once and the biggest problem I had is that the people who had a greater say than I did were the same people who turned a synagogue from 750 member families to 300. They were ineffective...more
You’ve got a lot on your plate as a retirement plan provider and the last thing you need is more headaches. So don’t add to your workload and headaches by deciding to bill for the work of another provider....more
Once Upon A Time In A Dying Organization - Whether it’s a synagogue, a law firm, or a third-party administration (TPA), I’ve been involved in one way or another with dying organizations. That’s probably a good reason why...more
In sports and in business, you’re only as good as the team that you are on. I have been on some good teams and not-so-good teams, so I know that sometimes I was only as good as an ERISA attorney if my fellow employees were...more
As a retirement plan provider, you meet a potential client and you just do so well in the meeting that you think there should be no way that you’re going to lose this prospect. Yet you get the call that a competing provider...more