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In a recent paper authored by behavioral economist Shlomo Benartzi, he looked at the impact of an email to get employees enrolled in their employer’s retirement plan. 

He did a study in conjunction with the White House Social and Behavioral Science Team, also known as the Nudge Unit, a name left over from the Obama administration. 

Their findings were that a well drafted email nearly doubled the program enrollment rate compared to the control group.

The email used simple nudges, such as providing actionable steps for enrolling in the savings program and giving people clear examples of how small contributions can lead to large account balances.

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Have you ever used these words? If you have, you know the value that a good Third Party Administrator (TPA) brings to your practice.

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Our last two blog articles have gone over the role of the record keeper in your 401(k) plan. As you may recall, there are many people who work behind the scenes to help manage a 401(k) plan. There’s the Investment Advisor, Third Party Administrator (Benefit Equity, Inc.), mutual fund companies, and a recordkeeper, (insurance company or investment company). 

So where does the Third Party Administrator (TPA) fit into the equation? Benefit Equity, Inc., (BEI) is a Third Party Administrator and we’ll discuss our role in recordkeeping and your 401(k) plan.

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As discussed in our last blog article, there are many people who work behind the scenes to help manage a 401(k) plan. There’s the Investment Advisor, Third Party Administrator (Benefit Equity, Inc.), mutual fund companies, and a recordkeeper, (insurance company or investment company). 

The 401(k) recordkeeper is the investment custodian who buys and sells the mutual funds as directed by plan participant’s. In this role they account for the buying and selling of the funds, the contributions to the plan and the distributions to terminated employees. They are the bookkeeper for 401(k) plan. They also provide enrollment materials, participant disclosures, online access of account information and retirement planning tutorials. 

What else should you know about recordkeepers? Here are a few frequently asked questions we get about the role of the recordkeeper.

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In Robert Gorelick’s book, America’s Retirement Plan, Chapter 3 discusses parties to the Plan. There are a lot of different parties to the plan known as service providers. They work behind the scenes to help manage a 401(k) plan. There’s the Investment Advisor, Third Party Administrator (Benefit Equity, Inc.), mutual fund companies, and a recordkeeper, (insurance company or investment company). 

According to PlanSponsor Magazine’s 2016 Recordkeeping Survey, 401(k) recordkeepers hold $4.2 trillion of American’s retirement savings.  We also refer to them as the recordkeeping platform.

So what exactly does a 401(k) recordkeeper do? And just as important, what don’t they do?

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