Archived Webcasts and Podcasts

Staying Ahead of the Curve is designed to provide defined contribution plan fiduciaries, committee members, plan administrators, human resource, and compensation & benefits specialist with the latest trends in retirement plan management. Our presentation provides insight into how the current legal and regulatory environment is driving changes in plan design. These changes include how plan fees are allocated to participants, the use of plan investment options to pay recordkeeping expenses, and the processes utilized to ensure plan fees are reasonable and competitive. We will provide an overview of the steps required to monitor plan expenses and determine their reasonableness. We detail the fact and fiction of regarding benchmark, vendor RFP, and targeted renegotiation projects.

The retirement plan landscape is changing quickly and much of that change is taking place in 2013. Join us in a discussion on best practices for retirement plans for small-mid size businesses to learn what is required to start and succeed at creating a retirement plan. Learn about staff time commitments, costs involved in starting a plan and keeping it going; who pays for the plan expenses, what parties are involved in retirement plans, and what their duties are.

Half of Americans do have access to a retirement savings plan at their workplace. For those that do, about one-third fail to join. And for those that do join tend to save too little and often make unwise investment decisions. The 401(k) arena is in crisis, and workers need sound guidance and help. This webinar will help employers who have yet to set up a retirement plan learn the steps to do so to include commitments to time, costs and associated risks.

Fiduciary competency is rightfully on the minds of many fiduciaries due to the tightening regulatory environment and heightened fiduciary awareness. Indeed, fiduciaries must insulate themselves from breaches of duty as well as possible litigation, and they must be ready to provide evidence of fiduciary compliance. In their preparedness, they must be prudent experts, required to apply substantive and procedural prudence – assessing the right information in the right way.

The purpose of this webinar is to help fiduciaries of 401(k) plans avoid common fiduciary errors and learn how a prudent fiduciary process can help avoid mistakes. Case studies will be used to illustrate how to use a prudent process. Attendees will have a better understanding of their role as a fiduciary and how to properly apply it to fulfilling their fiduciary duties.

Is your executive compensation program competitive and effective? Is your company paying its top executives (your CEO and heads of HR, Operations, Finance, Sales, Marketing and R&D)competive bases salaries, benefits, perks, bonuses and equity incentives? Find out what other private companies are paying these executives and how some of the most successful companies are using their executive compensation programs as competitive tools.This session will provide highlights from Chief Executive Group's definitive CEO and Senior Executive Compensation in Private Companies Report www.ChiefExecutive.net/comp Find out what other private companies are paying their senior executives and how they are structuring these compensation programs to be able to recruit, retain and motivate the right people and the right behaviors.

This session provides an open forum where you will also have the opportunity to ask questions and address any concerns regarding your organization’s plan Advisory arrangements. Within the human resource profession, it is an understanding that selecting the right person for any job is crucial. This webinar will hope to show that selecting the right Advisor for your company’s retirement plan is deemed just as important. Especially since making a prudent selection is mandated by Federal law (ERISA). This session will discuss the following items: - Understanding the basics of fiduciary responsibility - How to evaluate your organization’s needs - The evolution of qualified plan advice - The distinct cultures and business models that exist among Advisory firms and the resulting trade offs - Identifying and recognizing Advisory firm business practices that could create potential conflicts - How to evaluate your plan’s Advisory relationship and ensure you are receiving the most desirable set of services for your plan at a competitive price The goal of this session is to provide you with a background and tools so you and your organization will be able to make educated decisions when involved in an Advisor search or evaluating an existing Advisory relationship.

Organizations often have a blind spot when making decisions regarding employee benefits. The risk of this shortfall is compounded by common misconceptions regarding the true nature and scope of the fiduciary duties imposed by ERISA and the associated liability retained by plan sponsors and trustees, even when they rely on outside experts. As a result, most plans are paying 20%-60% higher fees than are necessary for the services being delivered, and employers and trustees (aka “Plan Fiduciaries”) have unknowing retained financial liability for fiduciary obligations they mistakenly think they have delegated to their 401(k) provider.ERISA plan. The presentation will provide a high level view of the fiduciary responsibilities and specific examples of the technical and real world liability and risk Plan Fiduciaries face. A more detailed examination of the three most common fiduciary blind spots will be provided along with recommended actions that can be taken to mitigate their risk.

Did you know… only 15% of employers / plan sponsors today feel that most of their plan participants will be financially prepared for retirement? What are they doing to improve the situation? We'll discuss: Join this session to understand: • Why retirement readiness is a growing problem, including stagnation of participant accounts, employee participation and contribution rates. • The effects of fee disclosure regulations on plan participants and employers, and HR can help communicate 401(k) fees to employees. • New ways retirement providers are helping sponsors improve retirement readiness, including guaranteed income funds and use of social media to engage participants. Hear results of Deloitte's latest 401(k) survey and how plan sponsors and providers are addressing employee retirement readiness.

Half of Americans do have access to a retirement savings plan at their workplace. For those that do, about one-third fail to join. And for those that do join tend to save too little and often make unwise investment decisions. The 401(k) arena is in crisis, and workers need sound guidance and help. This webinar will focus on the behavioral challenges that have led to the crisis- inertia, limited self-control, loss aversion, and myopia. From there we can then begin to understand how the typical worker makes decisions inside their 401(k) account. Then we can begin to transform their behavior by creating solutions, or tools, that are based upon cutting edge behavioral finance research. Then we can then dramatically improve outcomes by, helping employees help themselves by learning how they make decisions inside their retirement plans.

With the Form 5500 season upon us, this presentation will address basic reporting requirements, provide practice tips, highlight areas the DOL and IRS are focusing on, and walk through how to avoid the top five Red Flags your filings may have.

This presentation will guide HR professionals through the Form 5500 filing to help them gain a better understanding of the information required to be reported and Find out what is new for 2012, how to simplify indirect (Schedule C) service provider compensation reporting, what is and how to report ‘nonmonetary compensation’ and how to perform an effective manager review of each filing before submission.

What do the new Departmet Of Labor Regulations 408(b)(2) and 404(a) mean? They require 401(k) retirement plan providers to clearly disclose what fees plan sponsors are paying them. This is significant since many providers bundle their services and in the past it has been difficult to tell. In addition, many such providers do not act in a fiduciary capacity on such plans. This Webinar will explore what's wrong with 401(k) plans today that prompted these regulations, what are some fiduciary responsibilities of plan sponsors to include recent case law, and what are some new best practices when considering plan design.