Case Studies

Medical Practice

Demographic 8 Physician/Owners-1 Practice Manager
 

• Plan: 20 Year Plan Design: 401(k) Plan with 100% Matching on 1st 7%.  
• Vendor National Payroll Provider
• Investment Advisor: Local Broker
• Concerns: Owners were not maximizing the annual IRS contribution limits.  Mutual Fund costs were too high, no HR support and employee financial education was not being provided

Solution:  In order to achieve the clients' goals, the plan was redesigned to be a "Class Based" Profit Sharing/401(k) Plan to maximize contributions.  To lower costs, an "Open Architecture" record keeping Platform (no revenue sharing/12b-1 fees) was implemented.   

Additional "tax saving" option:  Add "Cash Balance" Plan which would dramatically increase owner's contribution allocation.  

 

Governmental  

Demographic: 240 employees, both full-time and part-time
 

• Plans: Money Purchase and 456
• ​Vendor: Local TPA with Record Keeping and Payroll  
• Investment Advisor: Local Insurance Broker
• Concerns: Employee Education was non-existent and the broker was never available for newly hired employees.  Significant Investment Advisor Fees were buried within the mutual fund costs.  Expensive plan with dated technology and no mobile app.  
   

Solution: Transfer assets to record keeper with strong governmental experience and mobile technology.  Other features included advanced employee education using an "Open Architecture" mutual fund platform.  HR hired a new payroll provider with robust HR module/360 integration with record keeper.

The Prizant Group takes overall control of education and continual financial support for employees on an individual /group basis.  50% savings on lower cost mutual funds, record keeping/TPA compliance.   
 

Technology

Demographic: A 20 employee technology start-up wanted to offer a cost-effective, 401(k) to their employees.  One of the requirements was to ensure that the participants had anytime access through their mobile device.  A second requirement was to ensure that payroll was integrated with the platform.   

• Plan:  Needed to begin on 1/1 of the coming year and it was already early December. The traditional record keepers require 60-75 days for setup ,were expensive, and lacked payroll connectivity.

Solution:

Our search was to find a low cost and reputable provider that offers mobile ready technology with payroll integration.  This technology is relatively new and recent entries into the plan start-up arena appeared to be promising. After lengthy discussions with multiple vendors and hours of website/mobile application demos; The Prizant Group recommended 3 record keepers to the client. The selected vendor was able to have the plan "up and running" by the first of the year and it has been operating smoothly ever since. 

Advertising

Demographic: Advertising firm with 1 owner and 9 employees.

• Plan: Safe Harbor Matching Plan (100% on 1st 4%)
• Vendor: National Insurance Company
• Investment Advisor: Wire House Broker who dabbles in ERISA plans.
• Concerns: Long-time record keeper sold their entire book to a competitor. Financial advisor did not inform client of the upcoming transition and has been a disinterested party for many years. Furthermore, was their plan  competitively priced?

Solution:

With our marketplace expertise, we knew the plan was significantly overpriced.  We analyzed the entire plan for design changes, costs, and investment options.  We prepared a full cost benefit analysis using multiple alternative record keepers.  Ultimately we were successful in helping the client select a new provider that resulted in dramatic cost savings.