Leaderboard

Short answer: No, Im not concerned. The same question was asked when payroll providers started using admin (if you can even call it that) as a loss leader to capture the payroll service The same question was asked before and after the DOL slammed the door on the fingers of the Open MEP providers The same question was asked when some bigger national players started gobbling up every mid size service provider they get their hands on These services will be a good fit to some plans, but nowhere near a majority. My clients are with me because of the service I provide, not because I'm $10 cheaper than the other cookie cutter providers. If a client is only looking at cost, they wouldn't sign with me in the first place. We are not the most expensive, but we aren't on the low end either. One of the biggest complaints I hear from people coming from the big national TPAs or payroll providers is that the service aspect just was not there. It was hard to get a call back, their rep kept changing, they were not flexible enough, "we dont do that" was a common answer, and so on. That is not how we work. Most of my clients have my cell phone number, but very few "abuse it". My clients know that if there is an issue that needs solving it will get solved. They want and expect a premium service, and for that they need a premium service provider. If you are a small shop that does mostly very simple admin, that may be different.

I also say, "We do 401(k) Plans" and add "we are the compliance and government reporting folks" because yes, otherwise, the listener believes we sell investment products.

The sponsoring employer needs to be able to adopt the plan document on or before 10/1. What needs to be in place before the new company is a considered an entity capable of taking an action like adopting a plan? I don't know; it will probably depend on the laws in your state. Presumably there are some lawyers involved with the spin-off - can you ask them? Alternatively, have the plan adopted by the presently-existing company, with an effective date of 10/1, covering only the the people who will be employees of the company being spun off. Then after the spin off occurs, have the new entity adopt the plan and the old company revoke its adoption, and name the new company as plan sponsor simultaneously.

And don’t forget to revise the summary plan description. The plan identification number is an element of the required contents of a summary plan description. 29 C.F.R. § 2520.102-3(c).

Just fix the plan number on the document now. As it's an AA, an amendment would be appropriate. Nothing else needs to be done since the more important thing is that the 5500s appear to have had the correct number.

I have railed against the use of TPA to describe what we do since time immemorial. I have lost that argument, but I still don't refer to ourselves as a TPA and I correct anyone who uses that term with us. We use the phrase "retirement plan service provider" or just plain "service provider". Because, I ain't a THIRD PARTY anything! We're a FIRST PARTY with our clients. I ask clients if they would refer to their atty or acct as a "third party atty or acct". Same thing with us. We represent the client directly, not as a third party. The phrase TPA came from the health insurance industry where there really is a "party of the third part" which is different than the party of the first part (the client) and the party of the second part (the insurance company) who then go out and hire a true THIRD PARTY to do some work on their behalf. What a mistake our industry has made and continues to make.

This message brought to you by the American Society for the Employment of Actuaries Though as someone who is currently waiting on results from EA-2L I can't disagree too much with this perspective. To the original question, when someone asks me what our company does (and they want the short version), the top 3 things I would mention would be plan document work (Legal), testing and calculations (Compliance/Consulting), and processing contributions and distributions (Administrative). So if you asked me for a better name than TPA I would suggest something like an LCA (Legal-Compliance-Administrative or Legal-Consulting-Administrative - take your pick) Firm.