What or Who is a 401k Plan Sponsor?

Plan Sponsor

A 401k plan sponsor is an employer or organization that establishes and maintains a 401k retirement plan for the benefit of its employees or members. The plan sponsor is responsible for selecting the investment options available in the plan, determining the plan's administrative and operational features, and ensuring that the plan complies with applicable laws and regulations.

The plan sponsor may also hire third-party service providers, such as recordkeepers and investment advisors, to assist with the administration and management of the plan. However, the plan sponsor retains ultimate responsibility for the plan's operation and fiduciary duties.

Plan sponsors have a legal obligation to act in the best interests of plan participants and beneficiaries and to fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). This includes ensuring that fees and expenses associated with the plan are reasonable and disclosing all relevant information to plan participants.

Fiduciary Shield Launch

Fintech Firm BidMoni Launches Fiduciary Shield, a Retirement Plan Platform That Assists Plan Sponsors to Meet their Fiduciary Duties and Reduce Plan Costs

Proprietary tech platform empowers plans to engage in a competitive bidding process for the first time, offering them significant savings and other fiduciary benefits

MOSS POINT, Miss., June 20, 2018 -- With America’s U.S. retirement savings deficit in the trillions of dollars and growing, BidMoni has announced the launch of Fiduciary Shield, the first platform that allows retirement plans to quickly and easily solicit bids from dozens of the country’s top retirement plan providers.  Fiduciary Shield analyzes proposals so plan sponsors and financial advisors can determine the best plan, document the entire process to stay compliant, and automatically monitor plans on a ongoing basis.      

Fiduciary Shield was designed by retirement plan experts Stephen Daigle and Michael Steffan, who together bring 26 years of problem solving in the financial industry for some of the largest financial institutions in America.  CTO Kendall Dixon, president of Dixon Consulting and Development, is also a founder and brings expertise designing technology solutions to improve and simplify the processes of investment firms. 

Until now, companies wishing to provide a 401(k) plan needed to contact and request proposals from each individual plan provider they reviewed. This process could take months and the plan sponsor still had no easy way of comparing the resulting bids to ensure that plan costs and features were appropriate and reasonable, both of which are required under ERISA law.

Fiduciary Shield enables plans of all sizes to conduct a robust Request for Proposal (RFP) process that can help them lower their costs and reduce the potential liabilities associated with their plans, while improving their plan’s quality. Fiduciary Shield pairs users with industry leaders in retirement plan administration to provide these proposals.

“Offering employees the benefit of a retirement plan has become a burden for many plan administrators and business owners—but particularly for plans with less than $25 million in assets,” says BidMoni Co-CEO Michael Steffan, Jr. “We believe these plans should have the same competitive opportunities as larger plans.”

There is no cost to a plan for initiating the RFP process and it takes less than a half-hour to get started. If a plan sponsor selects a new plan provider, it pays Fiduciary Shield a nominal fee to monitor the plan and provide ongoing alerts.

Fiduciary Shield has partnered with First Ascent Asset Management to work with plan sponsors who want to delegate fiduciary responsibility for the management of plan investments.  First Ascent will serve as an independent “3(38) manager.” They accept fiduciary responsibility for selecting and monitoring investment options and can remove the conflicts of interest that have been the cause of many recent lawsuits.

The new platform is available to retirement plans of all sizes, including 401(k), 403(b), and 457(b) plans.  Financial advisors can bring this service directly to their clients, even if they are not, themselves, retirement plan experts.

“Throughout our careers, we have worked with school teachers and businesses big and small and we’ve seen the devastating impact that high investment fees and layered service fees can have on retirement savings,” said Founder and Co-CEO Stephen Daigle. “With Fiduciary Shield, we are reducing the time and expense of plan sponsorship and helping plan sponsors discharge their legal obligations as a plan fiduciary.  Our goal is to create an open and transparent marketplace for companies to create the best plan for their employees. Ultimately, that will help to break down the barriers that have prevented individual participants from adequately saving and investing for retirement.”

About BidMoni 
BidMoni, Inc. is a Fin-Tech start-up designed to bring transparency and efficiency to employer sponsored retirement plans, including 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) plans.  BidMoni’s flagship product, ‘Fiduciary Shield’, provides plan sponsors the opportunity to have industry leading plan providers compete for their business.  Fiduciary Shield is easy to use, helps satisfy the Department of Labor (DOL) requirement that plans pay only reasonable fees, and ensures that the process is fully documented. 

About First Ascent Asset Management 
First Ascent provides outsourced portfolio management services to financial advisors and their clients. The firm’s founder, Scott MacKillop, is a 40-year veteran of the financial services industry and has been providing asset management services to financial advisors for over 25 years. First Ascent is a registered investment advisor.

For more information please visit Bidmoni.com, or to schedule a demo of the platform, contact Support@Bidmoni.com.