Skip to content

Posts from the ‘Tax Exempt’ Category

Jan 9

aaron friedman's photo
3 Comments

8 Ways to Make Your Participation Education Plan Rock

As a numbers guy – in the insurance industry to boot – one might be surprised to know that I enjoy playing the guitar as much as I love analyzing tax-exempt retirement plans!

HZ1226 GUITAR

I’ve learned it’s one thing to own a really cool guitar (and having it sit in the corner collecting dust), but it’s another to pick it up and practice regularly so you can truly enjoy it.

Maybe the same is true for some employers with their participant education plan. The plan might look good on paper, but could use a little work in order to hit the right notes with employees. So I’d like to provide some best practices to help you create a participant education plan that can rock. Read more

Dec 19

aaron friedman's photo
2 Comments

“High Touch” Doesn’t Always Mean Higher Education in Retirement Plans

In my last post, we talked about how retirement plan fees didn’t always have to be low – or necessarily the lowest – but simply reasonable. In other words, relative to the level of service provided. In today’s lesson (so to speak), I’d like to cover how the same levels of service could apply to participant education – and help your efforts be more effective.

In terms of service, there’s a wide range of product offerings for 401(k) and 403(b) plans, from the simple issuance of annuity products or mutual fund shares to robust plan designs tailored to the needs of both the plan sponsor and the participants. And you could think of participant education in the same way, with offers ranging from a “textbook” approach of what’s always been done to a “lesson plan” that’s tailored to different demographics, measures results and sets goals.

Unlike plan service, however, the answer for participant education has traditionally always been “high touch.” But high touch doesn’t necessarily equal highly productive results. Read more

Nov 30

aaron friedman's photo
6 Comments

What Do Cars and Retirement Plans Have In Common?

I think it’s a safe bet to say we’ve all paid a lot more attention to retirement plan fees in the wake of the new DOL (Department of Labor) disclosure requirements. This is true for 401(k)/403(b) plans and beyond. Fortunately (or unfortunately) we can’t avoid the topic!

It’s likely no one pays more attention than the plan fiduciary. After all—it’s their job to work with the service provider and financial professional to make sure the fees paid by the plan are “reasonable.” But what exactly does “reasonable” mean? Read more

Nov 9

aaron friedman's photo
2 Comments

Everything You Never Knew about 403(b) Plans

Welcome to my blog! I look forward to posting (and interacting) regularly with you about issues affecting pension plans in the tax exempt sector.

To kick off my first post, I thought it would be timely to address some industry buzz.

Rumor has it that the DOL (Department of Labor) recently hired a lot of new field auditors, which could only mean one thing – more audits. I think it’s safe to say that more 403(b) plans will be put on the firing line as well. Just what we need, right? Well, a little work now and some knowledge may help, so keep reading.

Read more

Newer Entries »