Overview
3(16) Fiduciary Services
An employer who sets up a retirement plan is a fiduciary, held legally responsible for compliance with IRS and DOL regulations. This can be daunting, since most employers don’t have the necessary expertise or the time to dedicate to detailed compliance work. Outsourcing 3(16) services relieves that burden, saving valuable time and reducing business risk. Advisors gain peace of mind knowing their clients’ plans are maintained in full ERISA compliance.
FuturePlan 3(16) services cover a broad range of essential fiduciary tasks: providing fee disclosures and plan documentation to new hires, monitoring participant eligibility, handling distribution paperwork, and so much more.
FuturePlan’s 100-point Payroll Data Integrity Check
FuturePlan’s proprietary Fiduciary Assistant® program leads the industry with a comprehensive 100-point data integrity check, every pay period, year after year. We can find and prevent most common payroll errors that lead to costly plan corrections and IRS/DOL audit failures. Learn More >
Why Choose FuturePlan?
Hiring an experienced, credentialed 3(16) fiduciary is crucial, as this provider plays a large part in ensuring the compliance of the plan. FuturePlan’s 3(16) service, powered by Goldleaf Partners, was formed by industry experts and harnesses the power of data integrity software to create an offering unlike any other in the marketplace.
Reduce workload and increase capacity
We take on the tedious and detailed administrative tasks associated with plan compliance, clearing employees’ plates so they can focus on higher priority projects.
Peace of mind
We’ll fix any errors and make the right decisions that are best for the plan. Plan sponsors can rest easy, knowing our processes and procedures are in check.
Compliance shield backed by integrity checks
The number one source of retirement plan errors is payroll data. We’ve developed a system that performs more than 100 data integrity checks, ensuring payroll data is error-free and plans are in compliance. With the combination of our proprietary software and a dedicated relationship manager monitoring the details, we’re confident your clients will be safest in our hands.
Client flexibility
We offer a range of services and work with all plan sponsor sizes. Our clients currently range from 3 to 5000 employees and $0 to $250 million in plan assets.
The Importance of Data Integrity Checks
What creates chaos and difficulty for plan sponsors? Plan errors.
And what causes plan errors? The answer, nearly always, is errors in payroll data. Below are a just a few of the recent errors we’ve found and fixed before they became costly issues.
- Duplicate files. On more than one occasion, we’ve seen employers submit the same payroll file twice in a row. Our system flags this duplication and we reach back out to retrieve the correct file without creating incorrect retirement plan data and issues down the road.
- SSN manual entry error. One employer recently transposed the SSN of an employee, accidentally creating a “new” employee while also distorting the records of the actual employee. We caught this and fixed it quickly before it became a problem.
- Missing or incorrect dates. Several employers submit payroll files that are missing the date of birth or hire, or have this information incorrect. If these are inaccurate, vesting, eligibility, and other important aspects of the participant’s information and plan are also inaccurate.
We've built a system that completes more than 100 data integrity checks on payroll files, catching and fixing these errors before they become real problems. Our team finds errors in over 50% of the payroll files they review. That’s how frequently these errors occur.
Ideal Candidates
Ideal candidates for 3(16) services include:
- Plan sponsors without a dedicated retirement expert on-staff
- Plan sponsors with complex or complicated plan details
- Plan sponsors desiring more capacity for their HR staff
- Plan sponsors looking to reduce compliance risk associated with their retirement plan
Service Advantages
Save time and increase capacity
By outsourcing time-consuming retirement tasks, sponsors have more time to focus on their business.
Compliance protection
Hiring a 3(16) service provider who also acts as a fiduciary will mitigate the risks associated with a retirement plan.
Experts on your team
Retirement plan rules and regulations are complex and seemingly ever-changing. A qualified and credentialed 3(16) provider will act as the expert on your team, so you don’t have to be.
Let’s Work Together
Interested in more tools and resources about 3(16) services? Fill out this quick form to receive our 3(16) Buyer’s Guide to provide your clients, along with answers to any additional questions you may have.
