Sponsors

ABG Southwest offers a range of retirement plan services tailored to meet the specific needs of each unique client. First, we work with you to understand your objectives, and then we recommend practical, cost-effective solutions to achieve them. Our experienced professionals are committed to providing the best possible service to help you and your organization succeed.

  • Plan Design and Consulting

    Retirement plans are critical to the success of an organization. Employers who offer a solid retirement plan have a competitive edge in recruiting and retaining the best talent to meet their staffing needs.

    Our team of retirement plan professionals will help hone that competitive edge. We can create a customized plan design tailored to your particular organization; we’ll start by analyzing your business and personal goals, tax and financial reporting requirements, legal issues, cash-flow implications and administrative protocols. Next, using information unique to your business, we will design a retirement plan precisely fitted to your business.

    Do you already have a retirement plan in place? Let ABG Southwest review your plan’s structure, identify and resolve any problems, and suggest updates that will keep you current and on track to meeting your goals.

  • Plan Documents

    ABG Southwest offers a range of retirement and welfare plan document options that can be customized to your organization’s size, demographics and goals. These options include:

    • Defined Contribution Profit Sharing, §401(k), §457(b), Money Purchase
    • §403(b) Plans (ERISA and ERISA-exempt)
    • Cafeteria Plans
    • Flexible Spending Accounts (Medical and Dependent Care)
    • Health Reimbursement Arrangements
    • Transportation Spending Accounts
    • Wrap Plans
  • Plan Sponsor Website

    Easy to use and customizable, the ABG Southwest Plan Sponsor website includes a variety of useful features, including:

    • Plan dashboard with totals by investment and by source
    • Detailed transaction history, including contributions and loan repayments to help plan sponsors track activity and respond to employee inquiries
    • Individual employee information
    • Plan investment details
    • Secure transmission of contribution and employee census data
    • Ad-hoc reporting capabilities for real-time access to plan and participant information

     

    Plan Participant MFA Notice

  • Compliance Testing

    ABG Southwest performs the required compliance testing and non-discrimination testing to help ensure that your plan is in compliance with federal laws.

  • Plan Error Detection and Correction

    The earlier a plan mistake is detected and corrected, the cheaper it is to fix. It also precludes the mistake from affecting other areas of the plan. We take a hands-on approach to finding, fixing, and avoiding plan errors before they jeopardize your plan’s tax-favored status and impact plan participants. ABG Southwest’s consultants are adept at navigating the IRS and Department of Labor voluntary and self-correction programs. Our goal is to minimize your costs by avoiding potentially significant noncompliance penalties.

  • Government Reporting and Participant Disclosures

    Retirement plans must file certain forms and reports with the IRS and the Department of Labor. Different reporting requirements apply depending on the type of plan and plan’s circumstances. ABG Southwest offers a turnkey solution to assists clients in meeting their annual reporting and disclosure obligations, including:

    • Signature-ready Form 5500, Form 5500-SF, or Form 5500-EZ
    • Form 8955-SSA
    • Summary Annual Report
    • §408(b)(2) and §404(a)(5) Fee Disclosures
  • Fee Benchmarking

    Plan fiduciaries have an obligation to ensure that fees and expenses are reasonable for the level and quality of services provided. Although most plan sponsors do not know their plan’s total cost, our fee-benchmarking services can help your company effectively evaluate your retirement plan’s costs. ABG Southwest compares your plan to other options in the market by looking at total plan costs, relative to investment choices and services rendered. This ensures your plan is competitive and that your company is satisfying its ongoing fiduciary responsibilities.

  • Conversion and Implementation

    We invest significant time and resources to ensure each of our client’s plan implementation or conversion process runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible. A dedicated team of specialists is assigned to each client, and each team member is adept at all aspects of plan administration and available to help manage every step of the implementation or conversion process.

    Since no two retirement plan conversions are the same, we use a conversion checklist to keep the process on track. It identifies all steps and responsibilities needed to establish our recordkeeping system. The timetables and processes are primarily dependent on the current administrative and compliance status of the plan, its investment and recordkeeping structure, employer internal capabilities and the level of cooperation from former service providers. A typical plan conversion and implementation takes a minimum of six to eight weeks.

  • Communicating Change

    Plan participants often become uncomfortable when their retirement plan changes. To minimize this, we work with employees through every step of the process, communicating clearly, offering positive rationales for the change and articulating the value of the new plan and its benefits. We partner with employers by:

    • Crafting a sample blackout notice (required by law to be distributed within a specific window of time)
    • Providing educational materials to help participants understand their rights, as well as the benefits and features of the new plan
    • Partnering with your investment advisors, investment consultant and benefits staff to provide live or webcast participant meetings
    • Providing web-based tools and educational materials to reinforce and supplement materials distributed at face-to-face meetings