401(k) Plans

According to a November 2010 Harris Poll, 34 percent of 2,000 adults surveyed had no (zero) retirement savings — including 22 percent who were age 65 and older.

That’s an absolute shame. But it’s also an absolute opportunity for business owners who would like to attract, retain, and, importantly, reward quality staff. Then again, your plan sponsor time is limited. You’re a physician, lawyer, manufacturer, restaurateur or other professional – not a financial analyst.

These are the challenges. At Bland Garvey Wealth Advisors we have partnered with one of the industry’s leading 401(k) plan administrators, Alerus to develop a responsible approach to retirement plan management.  This approach begins with an effective Investment Policy Statement (IPS) that serves as the strategic plan for the oversight of your firm’s retirement plan.

Alerus represents the evolution of 401(k) plan construction and management, by returning the investment of retirement assets to professional advisors.  This approach frees our business clients and plan sponsors from the burden of constructing and monitoring their own portfolio and provides much-needed fiduciary protection to plan sponsors.

In our years of working with 401(k) plans we have learned that participants want a single-choice option that will provide a fully diversified portfolio to meet their personal risk-return needs.  With access to the managed portfolios of Alerus, Bland Garvey provides plan sponsors with 401(k) plan portfolios managed in adherence with Modern Portfolio Theory, that are consistent with our passive investment philosophy.

We believe that following fiduciary best practices is critical to 401(k) plan success.  Our relationship with Alerus provides the tools, process and standards to guide our plan sponsors through a prudent process based on the global fiduciary standards of excellence established by the Foundation for Fiduciary Studies.

Here are our solutions

Real Benefits: You don’t want to offer just any plan. You want your plan to work; it should help people actually achieve their retirement goals. Our solutions offer five key benefits that distinguish us from the more commonly available, mass-market plans:

• We help participants make wise investment decisions by providing simple and effective portfolio options, structured according to the established principles of prudent investing.
• We assemble and coordinate your expert team of service providers, including record keepers, custodians and fund companies.
• We can assume the role of plan fiduciary (in writing!) offering you critical liability protection.
• We do not accept fund fees, often used to obscure the burdensome costs that hamper investor outcomes. Our costs – all of them – are fully transparent.
• We are available to provide direct advice to participants, to help them make confident decisions.

By turning to Bland Garvey retirement plan services, you can offer a real benefit to yourself and your employees — a benefit they will be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.

Flexible Offerings — Through our affiliated CPA firm, Bland Garvey, PC, we have seasoned expertise to guide you through establishing the right qualified retirement, pension and/or profit-sharing plan(s) for your business, across the spectrum of defined contribution, defined benefit, SEPs, 401(k)s and other benefit plans.