Your employees show up to support your collective mission every day, and we want to help you better show up to support your employees. Simply offering a retirement plan is not always enough to meet their complex financial needs, that why our services include education and advice from one of our Fiduciary Financial Planners.
Why Better Pockets Financial?
Plan Management and Vendor Oversight: Our goal is to take the complexity off of your plate. We will meet with you to review your plan health at least annually, including vendor review.
Fiduciary Guidance: Being a plan fiduciary comes with real responsibility. We provide the education and ongoing support you need to meet your fiduciary duties with confidence, helping you make decisions that are always in your participants' best interests.
Participant Support: We are here to be an extension of your team, and the first point of contact for all questions related to the plan. Whether they have questions about enrollment, contribution rates, or investment options, we're here to help them engage with and understand their plan.
Every participant has access to a complimentary Financial Review with a BPF financial advisor. These sessions can be personalized and typically cover topics related to:
- Employee Benefits — Making the most of what your company offers
- Financial Vision & Goals — Helping employees connect their money to what matters most to them
- Debt Payoff Strategies — Practical plans for tackling debt
- Discretionary Income Strategy — Where to put every extra dollar
- Insurance Needs — Making sure they're protected
- ...or whatever they need most — Participants can direct the conversation to any financial topic
Ready to Build a Better Retirement Plan Program?
Let's talk about what your team needs.
We meet with you at least annually to review the plan and vendor, help you understand and fulfill your fiduciary responsibilities, support employees with plan questions, and offer each participant an optional annual one-on-one financial meeting.
We work with 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), 401(a), SIMPLE IRAs, and Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation plans (NQDCs). If you're not sure whether your plan is a fit, reach out and we'll tell you straight.
Yes. We work with employers starting a new plan and those who already have one running but want better oversight or support. We can step in at any stage.
As a plan sponsor, you are generally considered a fiduciary under ERISA. That means you have a legal obligation to act in your participants' best interests when making decisions about the plan. We help you understand what that requires in practice and support you in meeting those responsibilities.
Yes. As a Registered Investment Adviser, we're required to always act in you and your participants’ best interests. We don't earn commissions and don't sell products. However, we are not your plan fiduciary, but we will help you meet your obligations as one.
We provide ongoing education about your fiduciary responsibilities, help you document key plan decisions, and flag regulatory changes that could affect your plan. We work alongside your ERISA attorney and third-party administrator, not in place of them.
Both. We're available to answer employee questions about the plan, and we offer each participant an optional 45-minute annual one-on-one meeting.
Each employee gets an optional 45-minute session with a BPF advisor. We cover how to get the most from their employee benefits, financial goals, debt payoff, budgeting, and insurance needs. Participants can direct the conversation to whatever financial topic is most relevant to them. These are educational sessions, not sales calls.
At least once per year for a formal plan review. You can reach us between scheduled meetings whenever something comes up.
Participant enrollment and contribution rates, investment option performance, fee reasonableness, participant outcomes, and any regulatory updates that affect the plan.
We can help. Evaluating service providers is part of our role. We can work through an RFP process with you, compare options, and help you make a well-documented, fiduciary-sound decision.
At minimum, annually. Reviewing whether plan fees are reasonable relative to the services and investment options provided is part of your fiduciary duty. We walk through that with you at every annual review.
Either. Fees can be paid directly by you as the plan sponsor or deducted from plan assets by the custodian, or a combination of the two. We'll go through both options so you can decide what works best for your organization.