Administrative Software

[Guest Joost Revis]

I am with a TPA firm, and we are planning to switch from our current in-house administrative software to that of a software provider. We want a conprehensive application, and so far my top choices are Corbel, ASC and Datair.

Anyone have someone comments or advice on what software to use?

We also want to implement daily valuations, and are leaning towards BenefitStreet, Corbel or Fidelity. Anyone have any suggestions in that arena too.

Thanks in advance for you help

Joost Revis

[Guest Tbrown]

Joost,

I can't speak for ASC because I have no experience with it. But I have used Corbel's products extensively and used Datair recently for about 1 1/2 years. My experience with Datair was not a good one. The software was very, very inflexible and as of 6 months ago, it was still dos based. Relius (Corbel) is improving all the time with each release. The biggest downside to it is that the software is a resource hog and they (Corbel) tend to try and put too much in a major release which causes the users problems. As a rule of thumb, when Corbel has a major release, throw it in your drawer for 6 months before loading.

Their daily system works well, but takes a big effort to get it up and running.

Tim

[Disco Stu]

If you find that comprehesive application, please let the rest of us know. Currently, I'm not sure it exists. For the last few years, our firm has been using one application for compliance testing and another for daily recordkeping. The data transfer between the two systems can be a bit of a pain, but we just haven't found a system that does daily recordkeeping that we could even consider for compliance testing.

While Tbrown's comments about Datair being DOS based and inflexible are accurate, I do have some positive comments about their software. As far a compliance testing goes, I don't think they can be beaten.

It does the standard tests (coverage, adp/acp and top heavy) well, but for my money, the real strength is its 401(a)(4) test. It can handle any testing option you want to utilize. It will also do non-discriminatory compensation testing.

If you're looking at doing daily recordkeeping though, Datair won't cut it. We use SchwabRT (formerly TrustMark) for daily recordkeeping. It does a fine job there, but unless all of your plans are cookie cutter types, the testing package isn't even close. It can do coverage (ratio percentage only), ADP/ACP and top heavy. If you need to do any other kind of test, you're out of luck.

Good luck, let us know your experience with whatever you choose.

[Guest Tbrown]

Stu made some very good points. Datair's compliance testing features were very good. One of the items that Datair did that Relius (Quantech) cannot, is solving for an integrated contribution with a self employed individual or partnership. Relius cannot handle the integrated part.

I never used Trustmark, so I can't comment on it either. Although I do know that much of Relius' new business these days comes from Trustmark shops (or as you say now SchwabRT). But I don't know the primary reason for switching.

I agree on the comprehensive system. It doesn't exist. But from what I have seen over the years, Relius seems to be the best (although far from being flawless) when you look at all parts, daily, testing, reports, etc. But it is a very complicated system that takes a long time to get comfortable with. I didn't rely on the testing features in Relius until their 4.0 release. It was a tough switch from Pentabs which had a very good testing module. Because it was started primarily as a daily system, the testing features have lagged behind. One plus is that they are slowly integrating some of the positive features from FDP, including their proposal system. I had not used the FDP proposal system until recently, but it can do just about anything. Many times we use it to solve for maximums in a cross-tested plan, then import the data to Relius. I currently work in what was an FDP shop, and it has been a struggle getting everyone up to speed on Relius.

I would be interested to hear what you decide.

Good luck.

[Guest SPOT]

I have used ASC and Quantech for compliance/balance forward work. I have also used Trustmark and Investlink's TSM for daily valuation. ASC is great for compliance work. I thought Quantech was extremely cumbersome, especially for updating eligibility. Also, ASC is very good with the ADP/ACP corrections. AS far as daily, from my experience Trustmark is the best, but rather expensive. Investlink's strength is that is comes with the voice response and internet access.

[AndyH]

How is ASC considered for 401(a)(4) testing, i.e. cross tested plans? Can anyone compare it to the others for this purpose?

[R. Butler]

We currently use Relius for the 5500. We are considering moving to Datair primarily because of cost. Is Datair's 5500 progarm good? Does anyone know how it compares with Relius?

[maverick]

After learning recordkeeping on Quantech, I now use Datair. As indicated previously, it still runs on DOS and does have limitations. One that comes to mind is only allowing one match source. So, if you have a s.h. match and a discretionary vested match, you're out of luck. The support people at Datair are very good (especially Gary), and always seem to have a work-around to solve most problems.

We also prepare 5500's using Datair's system (Pension Reporter). I've used it over two tax years and have had few problems. They are quick to post fixes on their website, so little glitches get corrected right away.