TRGA is an integral part of your plan's service team
Servicing qualified retirement plans is a group effort. As a key part of the team, it's our job to work harmoniously with the plan's other service providers to make sure the plan stays in compliance with the various government regulations.
We partner with a variety of recordkeepers
The plan's "recordkeeper" is the firm whose primary function is to track and maintain participant accounts. Recordkeeper services include keeping track of who is in the plan, providing enrollment services, investment tracking, facilitating investment transfer requests and providing participant web access, among other things. TRGA's national footprint means that we have working relationships with a variety of national and regional recordkeepers. The services we provide as the third-party administrator are agnostic with regards to who provides recordkeeping services.
Services
Plan Design
The first step is for us to learn what the employer is looking to accomplish by sponsoring a retirement plan. Is it to use as a recruiting tool? To help fund their employee's retirement? For tax advantages? All of the above? With that information in hand, we create a plan design specifically tailored to meet those objectives and yet be flexible enough to adapt as things change.
Plan Document
Next, we take the agreed upon design recommendations and codify them into a plan document which is the instrument that governs how the plan must operate. The document specifies things such as employee eligibility requirements, what contribution types are allowed, distribution options, availability of participant loans, "vesting" requirements etc. The document isn't something that is created and placed on the shelf but rather the blueprint we constantly reference to operate the plan.
Annual Compliance & Testing
ERISA, the federal law that governs how employers offer benefit plans to their employees, requires that certain annual tests be performed to verify that the plan doesn't discriminate in favor of "highly compensated" employees and that it doesn't exceed the IRS contribution limits. Typically, this compliance testing is outsourced to a firm like ours who specializes in this type of work. In addition, we also confirm that employee deferrals are being made on a timely basis, prepare annual notices for distribution to eligible participants and prepare the plan's tax return (form 5500) and other IRS and DoL reports for client signature. In short, we do the heavy lifting so the plan sponsor doesn't have to.