Retirement Plans

    

Triune Financial Partners, LLC provides advisors who serve as Advisor and Investment Counsel to corporate retirement plans across a variety of demographics, including:
 
  • Pension, Profit Sharing, 401(k), SEP & SIMPLE-IRA Plans
  • Employers with 1 – 1,000 employees
  • Professional Services Firms: Legal, Medical, Dental, Engineering, Accounting
  • Manufacturing & Construction
  • Auto Dealers
  • Closely-held businesses of all types, especially Family Businesses.

How are we different? These are the Triune Retirement Plan Distinctives:

Objective 
The Investment Management Services of our advisors are offered through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc. a Registered Investment Advisor.  We are in no way affiliated with nor sponsored by any mutual fund company, investment banking firm or insurance company.  We are fee-based and utilize independent research. Our only incentive is to generate good results for our clients.
 
Dedicated Service Model
– For Participants
– For Trustees / Owners / Fiduciaries
Transparent Fee Disclosure
– To include ALL plan- and participant-related costs
No Proprietary Bias
–  As an independent firm, our advisors are able to objectively evaluate various investment platforms and recordkeeping solutions.
Investment Process & Discipline
– aka “Intelligent Life”
Mission 
– Encouraging & equipping others to achieve Financial Peace of Mind.
 
 
How does your Retirement Plan stack-up in terms of Performance, Fees & Service Model?

Performance – Do you have full asset class coverage?  Are you hiring best-in-class investment managers within your various asset classes?  How does your managers’ performance benchmark versus their peers?  Are costs for active management warranted by your performance – or should you be indexing?

 
Fees – Do you know all the fees associated with your Plan?  Are they in-line with the marketplace?  Do you know if your Plan is competitively priced as compared to similar Plans?  Are Plan-level fees deducted from Plan assets needlessly dragging-down your fund performance?  If you are netting fees from Plan assets, are you missing opportunities to pick-up a tax deduction?
 

Service Model – How often do you see your current Advisor?  Do you receive regularly scheduled Plan-level reviews as a fiduciary to your Plan?  Do your employees receive consistent, proactive educational content?  Are your employees on-track to reach their retirement and other financial goals?  Are they even aware? How effective, polite & responsive is the day-to-day operational assistance you receive from your various Retirement Plan service providers?

If you would like to find out how your Retirement Plan stacks-up, please provide the following information for a no cost analysis:

  1. Most recent 5500 & Year-End Reports (i.e. Annual Valuation; Deferral Percentage & Compliance Testing Results)
  2. Summary Plan Description (SPD), including any recent Plan updates or amendments
  3. Plan-level Asset List - broken down by Dollar Amount & by Fund (with Ticker Symbols)
  4. Listing of any direct-billed costs for prior 2 years.
  5. Current Employee Census - to include Date of Birth, Hire Date, Position/Title, Percentage Ownership, Annual Compensation
  6. Enrollment Packet (i.e. what you would hand to an employee newly-eligible to enter your Plan)
With this information, we will prepare the following proprietary reports for you:
 
Full Fee Disclosure – to uncover & condense to a single page, the entirety of the fees associated with your current Plan.
Vendor Analysis – to benchmark your current Plan versus other best-in-class providers for Plans of similar demographics.
 
Full Fee Disclosure Analysis Report
 
Fees associated with Retirement Plans come in a variety of shapes and sizes, including:
 
  • Recordkeeping
  • Trading
  • Custody
  • Compliance
  • Administration
  • Investment Selection & Monitoring
  • Participant Education
  • Corporate Trustee Services
  • Base Fee
  • Per Head Fee
 
Additionally, the Investments inside Retirement Plan may contain one or more of the following fees:
 
  • Operating Expenses
  • Sales Loads (up-front or back-end)
  • Redemption Fees
  • Asset Charges
 
“Soft Dollar” Fees – routinely paid within the industry for Marketing & Distribution
 
May exist in one of two forms:
  • 12(b)-1 Fees -  are required by prospectus to be disclosed
  • Sub-Transfer Agent Fees – not required to be disclosed and are often off-balance sheet
 
Are you receiving credit today for the “Soft Dollars” being paid in your Retirement Plan?

See Sample Full Fee Disclosure Analysis Report

 
Vendor Analysis Report
 
Participant Services
  •  Website, call center, statements
  •  Customization
 Plan Sponsor Services
  •  Website, 404(c) & Fiduciary assistance, etc.
Investments
  •  Single fund family v. Multi-manager
  •  Range of asset class choices / types of investments
  •  Performance
Fees
  • Direct-billed v. Invisible
  • One-time v. Ongoing
Administration
  •  Bundled v. local?
  •  Day-to-day operational assistance available?
 
See Sample Vendor Analysis Report
 
 
What is the Long-term Impact of Reducing Fund Expenses?
 
Assumptions:
  • Current Retirement Plan Balance = $10,000
  • Participant age 35
  • Contributing $5,000/yr.
  • Projected Gross Investment Return (before fees) 9%
 
Projected Plan Balance, Age 65
  • Net Return 6.69% (9% less 2.31%) = $552,292
  • Net Return 8.01% (9% less 0.99%) = $731,929
 
A net difference of +$180,000, purely based upon the invisible fees….assuming precisely the same investment return!!!
 
 
 
Why is on-site Education so important? Why is Asset Allocation important? What foundation is needed to help achieve Financial Peace of Mind?
 
 
Asset Allocation. Studies have shown that the primary determinant of successful, long term investor returns is dependent upon the asset allocation of the investor's portfolio, NOT company selection or market timing.
 
Unfortunately, Investors tend to chase returns.  Successful long-term investing takes discipline and is rooted in logic & reason, not emotion.
 
What about managing the Downside Risk?
Since you must be “in to win”, we must begin by controlling risk with the proper asset allocation unique to each participant’s investment portfolio based on their own Risk Tolerance and Time horizon..
 
 
 
    RISK LEVEL
   INVESTMENT ALLOCATION
 
PORTFOLIO NAME
1-Year Loss Threshold
Probability  Violating  Threshold
Invest Grade Bonds
 
Large Cap Stocks  
Small Cap Stocks
 
Foreign Stocks
Conservative
-5%
2.2%           
60%
 30%
   5%
    5%
 
Balanced
-10%
1.4%
40%
 40%
    8%
    12%
 
Equity-Tilted
-15%
0.9%
25%
 50%
  10%     
    15%
 
Equity
-20%
1.2%
0%
  65%   15%
    20%
 
These loss thresholds are NOT GUARANTEED.  Probability Statistics are based on historical data.
Past performance may not be indicative of future performance.
 
 
How do Triune Advisors consistently serve the needs of our Clients?
 
Triune Service Model for Participants
 
Triune's Investor Profile Questionnaire
  • Age / timeframe to retirement
  • Previous investment experience
  • Other investment / retirement assets
  • Return expectations
  • Tolerance for volatility
 
Participant consults with one of our Advisors determines “best-fit” to one of four Asset Allocation-based Model Portfolios based on their unique needs and the Investor Profile Questionnaire.
 
Ongoing education meetings semi-annually "on-site" and support "off site"
 
To encourage, equip & educate
Simply no substitute for qualified, experienced advisor “live”
 
Unlimited phone calls, emails finishstrong@triunefp.com
 
Additional educational medium (print & electronic)
 
Award-winning Participant websites maintained by our recordkeepers
 
 
Triune Service Model for Trustees & Related Fiduciaries (Employer)
 
 
Investment Committee meetings (annually, semi-annually or quarterly):
 
TRIUNE WILL REPORT PLAN LEVEL STATISTICS:
 
Plan Assets, Breakdown by Fund
Model Portfolio / Asset Allocation Funds usage stats
# Participants, Average Participant Balance (is it growing?)
Average Deferral Percentage
Usage stats: Triune Advisor, website, call center
 
TRIUNE WILL REPORT THE PERFORMANCE AND PLAN DATA:
 
Performance of each of the individual funds & Model Portfolios currently offered (i.e. the “Investment Lineup”) vs. relevant benchmarks
Current Asset Allocation within the four Model Portfolios
The historic performance of each fund within an asset class v. a representative benchmark
Current expense ratios for each fund and weighted average expense ratios for each of the Model Portfolios
    
TRIUNE WILL MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING:
 
Deletion, addition or replacement of individual funds
Changes in the asset allocation of Model Portfolios
Re-balancing of Model Portfolios
 
It will then be the Committee’s responsibility to direct Triune regarding the implementation of such recommendations.
 
 
OUR DISTINCTIVES:
 
Dedicated Service Model
 
Transparent Fee Diclosure
 
No Propriatary Bias
 
Investment Process and Discipline
 
 
 
 
Thank You for your inquiry. We hope to have the opportunity to serve your Pension, Profit Sharing and Retirement Plan (401k) needs.
 

            
©2010 Triune Financial Partners, LLC. All rights reserved.