Bringing simplicity, transparency and lower costs to your retirement plan.
We share your mission to help your retirement plan participants achieve their financial goals. It’s why we make a fiduciary promise to every client: we will act in your best interests, no matter what.
We believe that starts by implementing a fiduciary-based service model that focuses on helping plan sponsors and participants make smart, informed decisions to enhance participant outcomes with the upmost transparency.
Buckingham Retirement Plan Services™
We provide support.
Typically when employees enroll in a 401(k) plan, they’re overwhelmed by long, unstructured lists of fund choices and investment alternatives. Engaging Buckingham Retirement Plan Services means working with a plan partner focused on providing participants with clear, appropriately diversified, professionally managed portfolios, and education about how to choose the one that aligns with their retirement savings goals.
This approach helps demystify the complications of retirement planning, making it easier for your employees to make smarter decisions about their futures.
We focus our efforts in areas that can make the most impact to increase participation levels as well as savings rates. This benefits both your plan overall and enhances the experience for your employees.
We provide all of the support you need to educate your employees on the value of your 401(k) plan as part of our core service to you. This includes group and individual meetings, investment guidance and more.
Responsibility is on us.
As a plan sponsor, you are fiduciary to your plan participants. This means that legally you are held to the standard of an investment professional and that you are liable to ensure that you follow a prudent process when selecting and monitoring the investment options in your plan. However, ERISA allows you to put your hands up and claim that you are not a professional and delegate that responsibility to an independent firm. Many plan sponsors are unaware of this option, and unfortunately many service providers are not willing to serve in this fiduciary capacity.
When you hire Buckingham Retirement Plan Services, we transfer that liability away from you and welcome with open arms the role of serving as a fiduciary and doing everything in your participants’ best interests.
Reach your goals.
As Registered Independent Advisors, we provide comprehensive, unbiased investment advice. Our fees are fully disclosed based on a percentage of the assets in your plan, not which individual funds we recommend to your participating employees. This means the funds we select for you are the ones that will help your participants reach their goals.
You can’t get good answers without good questions.
And we like answers.
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The truth is, maybe you don’t have to.
But we believe you should always look at anyone you work with and make sure they have your plan’s best interests at heart. Unfortunately, in today’s world, good intentions may not be good enough. We suggest you have your advisor confirm in writing that they are acting as a fiduciary so they are legally required to do what’s best for your participants.
Are all of your service providers’ fees transparent, or are they buried in the investment choices (leading to conflicts of interest)? Are they fully explaining all investment options to your plan participants? And are your employees finding value in their service and advice? At Buckingham, the answer to all of these question is yes.
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Bias is everywhere in our world today.
Sometimes, it’s not readily apparent. You want to know that your advisors are going to recommend funds and approaches that are right for your employees and your plan, not simply choose from the list of funds that are offered by a platform. When the choices are limited to a single product, chances are the funds sharing revenue with the recordkeeper, not because they are the best funds available for your participants. At Buckingham, we only work with service providers who us the ability to go out to the entire universe of fund options to choose what we believe to be in your participants best interests. There is no conflict of interest here.
We are independent, objective advisors. We are also fiduciaries – so we are legally obligated to do what is right for you.
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The cost structure of our plan is 100% transparent.
You’ll always know what you are paying and what you and your plan participants are getting for it. Rather than having all the costs buried in fund expenses or annuity contracts (only to be then shared by multiple service providers), our pricing structure allows for ultimate control and transparency.
This brings an unusual level of scalability to your plan administration, so the fee as a percentage may decrease as your plan grows. This can often lead to significant savings over time.
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Have a plan review by an independent advisor.
Allow this independent advisor to review your plan design, participant savings rates and how your participants are making investment decisions based upon the tools and support provided by your current service providers.
