Our group has been recognized consistently as a leading advisor managing corporate retirement plans. Our group manages defined benefit and defined contribution/401(k) plans ranging from many thousands to just a few participants in a variety of industries. We have distinct advantages over many retirement plan advisors; our fiduciary capability, our experience, our diversity of retirement plans, our process for employer plan reviews and our ability to provide real investment advice and financial planning services to employees. The financial regulation bill passed in July of 2010 has made our experience, fiduciary capability and review process critical to the successful operation of employer retirement plans.
Our Fiduciary Capability: Our firm, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, is unique among investment advisors in that the firm provides a platform for its advisors to be named as a contractual fiduciary to an employer defined contribution retirement plan. This helps relieve the fiduciary liability of the plan sponsor. Larger institutions with diverse interests may have too many conflicts of interest to adhere to fiduciary standards of advice.
Our Experience: Our group has been managing employer retirement plans since the early 1980’s. We have seen their evolution, and how they have become an increasingly important part of an employer’s benefit package and of an employee’s retirement assets.
Our Diversity of Retirement Plans: Retirement plans are a focus of our business. We strive to be the best, not the biggest, and we can devote the time and resources to keep our plans current with trends and regulatory changes because of our team structure and our critical mass of clients. The retirement plans we manage represent a wide array of plan structures, industries and professions using many different administrators and platforms. This allows us to see the trends in action and how different employers are reacting to the regulatory changes as we present them. We use our knowledge and experience to select the right administrator, platform and fee structure for your plan.
Our Services to Employers: In fulfilling your fiduciary role to the plan, it is critical to have an on-going process and documentation. Our process for managing retirement plans focuses on providing the employer with all of the necessary tools to fulfill your fiduciary duty. We form a retirement plan committee, agree on an investment policy statement, and set up a plan review schedule. In the plan reviews, we advise on regulatory changes, analyze and propose changes to the investment options, report and scrutinize plan expenses and present opportunities for changes to the plan.
Our Services to Employees: We provide employees with real advice. This extends beyond the plan to all aspects of their financial life. We encourage employees to use us as a resource and we offer complimentary full financial planning. We conduct regular group reviews and are available in person, by phone and by email for individual conversations.
