Corporate Services
(qualified retirement plans & non-qualified retirement plans)
With over 11 years of experience servicing the corporate market, EBC's President knows one thing - you must deliver value to your clients or you will lose them. Value is perceived by the client, not defined by us. Therefore, some companies do not make good clients because they do not value what we have to offer. See if your company would find value in the following services:
- Assist with documenting of all processes, procedures & plan costs
- Develop Investment Policy Statement
- Regular investment review meetings
- Employee education
- Analysis of current provider(s)
- Extension of your company
- Co-Fiduciary
Beginning of documenting all processes, procedures & plan costs - within the first three months we will help put together a comprehensive binder designed to help you prepare for an audit. This will also serve as a piece to help educate all retirement plan committee members on the history of your plan. ERISA & the Department of Labor do not care if the committee in charge of monitoring the plan makes a wrong decision, rather, they want to make sure decisions are consistent with what a "prudent expert" would conclude. We will educate the plan sponsor on how to work with the plan provider to help ensure all costs are reasonable and re-negotiate if they are not.
Develop and/or amend Investment Policy Statement (IPS) - the analysis of the current investment lineup and IPS. Even if the plan consists of quality investments, plan fiduciaries must consistently monitor them to help ensure suitability for an ERISA plan and follow a consistent search and replacement process. This is an ongoing process over the first 12-18 months as the committee will define how to handle fund additions and removals.
Regular investment review meetings - We do not disappear after you become a client! Investment review meetings are held either quarterly or semi-annual (determined by the plan sponsor). The reviews will detail fund status change recommendations and will be placed in the comprehensive binder. The ultimate decision on which fund to add or delete will lie with the fiduciaries of the plan.
Assistance with developing & implementing education program - with assistance from the plan trustees and fiduciaries, we will begin by outlining the goals and objectives for the education program (i.e. - what is the target participation rate and what will it take to get there, structure of education communications, etc.). It is important for your employee base to understand the 401(k) is a great benefit. This is achievable with a well structured communication process custom-tailored to your company's demographics. Within the first 6 months of being retained, the first phases of the plan will be implemented. In addition to educating the participants, educational pieces will be provided for the trustees/fiduciaries detailing their duties and responsibilities.
Review of current provider to help ensure competitiveness & suitability (if requested) - before the education program will be implemented, the committee will decide on whether or not your current provider is proper for what the participants and beneficiaries need. We will produce 2-3 finalists with a detailed analysis of each option compared against your current provider. This process helps to address the fiduciary duty to ensure plan competitiveness. It is recommended that a complete plan review be performed every 3-5 years to help ensure the provider is continuing to provide proportional benefits for the participants and beneficiaries as plan assets increase.
Extension of your company to help leverage your time - from time to time we run into issues that are difficult to resolve. Experience in the qualified plan marketplace enables us to help bring closure to these issues as well as help to ensure these issues don't continue to occur.
Co-Fiduciary - As it pertains to the services listed, the expectation is Andy Brawley will be held as a co-fiduciary for the investment monitoring services. Keep in mind, this does not relinquish the duty of the plan fiduciaries to continue to monitor these and other areas of the plan. The ultimate decision to change something in the plan will always lie with the trustees of the plan. In order to accept co-fiduciary status in writing, the plan's named fiduciaries will sign an acknowledgement detailing the duties, responsibilities and limitations of Andy Brawley through the Raymond James Financial Services Registered Investment Advisor.
Directives to corporate clients
Our goal is to:
- act with honesty and integrity.
- avoid conflicts of interest, whether real or perceived.
- treat everyone at your company with respect.
- deliver unbiased advice through Raymond James Financial Services, Inc.
- assist the Plan Sponsor in delivering the best available benefit to the plan participants and their beneficiaries available through the current provider
- provide a proactive service approach to help avoid issues
- assist in problem resolution and work to prevent similar problems from occurring
- earn your trust over time by delivering what has been promised.
- assist the Plan Sponsor in resolving any issues in a timely manner and make every effort not to make the same mistake twice.
- take responsibility for our mistakes.