Is Your 401K On Course?

401Ks have become a critical part of the American worker’s retirement planning. Unfortunately, your 401K may not be currently headed in the right direction for your successful retirement plans.  This is much too important a piece to be left to chance since your 401K is typically the largest asset you have outside of your primary residence.

Research shows only a small number of people who participate in 401K plans actually make any investment allocation changes beyond what they originally designated when they signed up for the plan. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that as many as half of plan participants who had been in a 401(k) for more than two years were still holding their default fund choice in their plan.

As a result of not making fund changes or not knowing what changes to make, your 401K investment returns could end up falling far short of the potential they could be earning for your retirement. Furthermore, you need to know how your current savings level in your plan integrates with the rest of your retirement goals. We can help with answers to your 401K questions.

How We Can Help Corporate 401k Plan Sponsors

As a plan fiduciary, are you doing what’s in the best interest of your employees?

As an employer and plan sponsor, you are offering an essential benefit to your employees. You want to make sure your employees have a great plan design and make the most of the retirement planning programs you offer. In fact, you have a legal obligation as a fiduciary to do so. But, like many companies, you probably don’t have the internal expertise, time or personnel to help your business stay on top of the very important fiduciary requirements required by your corporate plan. This is where Wootton Financial Group can help.

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is the federal law that established the standards for private pension plans, such as 401Ks. Section 404 (a) of the code defines your plan sponsor responsibilities.

As a plan fiduciary, you are required to “discharge your duties … with the care, skill and diligence under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent person acting in a like capacity and familiar with such matters would use in the conduct of an enterprise of a like character and with like aims.”

What this means is that you, as an employer, are required to provide ongoing due diligence in an ever-changing regulatory, economic and market environment. This requires you be an expert but this is probably not your company’s core competency. The law also assumes you are benchmarking your plan relative to key variables. As a plan sponsor, you cannot delegate your fiduciary role.  But, you can partner with an advisor with the demonstrated resources and expertise to assist you in fulfilling regulatory requirements.

The Wootton Financial Group 401k Corporate Game Plan puts our expertise and focused financial fundamentals to work optimizing the value your corporate retirement planning program offers to your employees. We also assist you in fulfilling all aspects of your compliance requirements and fiduciary obligations. Our mission is to successfully create a retirement plan that meets your needs as a plan sponsor as well as those of your valued employees.