Fiduciary Best Practices

ASSURE Financial Services assists plan sponsors in the management of their investment responsibilities. We provide our clients the tools to establish prudent investment processes, to follow them in practice, and to document their adherence to those standards. (Documentation is critical.)

Fiduciary Oversight

Our clients wear many professional hats. And while they may spend the least amount of their working life on retirement plan issues, their fiduciary role for the plan poses a significant amount of risk in the corporate arena. Inundated with primary job functions, Finance and Human Resources executives lament their lack of time and tools to fulfill their fiduciary accountabilities with a high level of confindence. This uncertainty is a major cause of concern regarding their personal liability as a fiduciary.

To meet this void, ASSURE Financial Services offers our plan sponsor clients a investment oversight program that provides confidence in plan management through independent guidance and monitoring.

Establishing Fiduciary Best Practices

ASSURE Financial Services helps our clients understand what it means to be a fiduciary and what requirements the Department of Labor expects them to meet.  We then implement and document processes in all areas of the plan in order to minimize undue liability.

Fiduciary Best Practices include the establishment of prudent procedures to manage the plan, designing the investment structure of the plan, selecting investment options, and monitoring those investment options on a regular basis. Assisting our clients in creating and maintaining a Fiduciary Kit to document their fiduciary decisions is an important service we provide.

ASSURE Financial Services assists our clients in reducing their fiduciary liability in the following ways:

Written Agreement

Fiduciary functions are managed effectively through a written fiduciary acknowledgement for our investment and advisory services. With us you save time, reduce personal risk, and gain access to critical fiduciary tools.

Investment Policy Statement

The Investment Policy Statement (IPS) provides the framework for the plan’s investment selection and monitoring process. Our firm assists with the investment aspects of an IPS for each of our clients, the provisions of which dovetail with  FIDUCIARY INVESTMENT REPORTING MANAGER (FiRM). Your IPS becomes a much easier process when the investment review measures and the IPS measures are in sync.

Fiduciary Kit

We maintain a Fiduciary Kit for our clients, which serves as secondary storage and retrieval for audit and fiduciary documentation relating to the plan. We encourage our clients to maintain a similar Fiduciary Kit on their premises.

Continuity of Conduct

Our role can ensure a high level of continuity in the event of Investment committee turnover. Our fiduciary oversight preserves the integrity of past decisions and provides effective succession for future fiduciary guidance.

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