Recordkeeping systems - looking for recommendations - BenefitStreet? E

[Guest Brad Arnold]

From time to time this question has arisen, but I'm looking for current opinions. We are a TPA firm running Relius right now and primarily using the Nationwide platform.

We are investigating BenefitStreet and ExpertPlan and would like opinions regarding these two and suggestions on any others that are good.

Any help is appreciated.

[jaemmons]

I would have to say that from an operational standpoint, as well as providing all the "bells and whistles" a quality platform should provide, ExpertPlan would be the better of the two platforms. Their TPA product is more in line with their strengths and as such should be strongly considered a high quality alternative to Nationwide. I believe they have a download format for RELIUS but you may want to contact Chris McCarthy (I believe he handles TPA clients with them now) @ EP to find out the details.

My firm uses Manulife and Lincoln which are also two very good platforms. If you handle small plans, I would have to suggest either Lincoln or Expertplan, with the weight toward EP since they do not carry an plan minimums for placing a plan on their platform.

[Guest Alan G]

Our firm has worked with quite a few daily valuation plaforms. We recommend that you take a look at 401kASP.

Their technology is very advanced. They offer a wide selection of trading partners which increases flexibility. Their service has been excellent. Their fee structures is very flexible with a wide variety of service models which allows the TPA to be actively involved in the recordkeeping, or just function as a consultant. In summary, we are very pleased with 401kASP.

Additionally, they pass all revenue sharing back to the TPA.

[Guest TBick]

We are looking for a trading platform that trades with the fund groups at the relationship level, instead of the plan level. We have some very large plans, with few participants, who trade frequently in their accounts. Anyone have any suggestions?

[Guest Carol Ringwald]

You may want to take a look at SunGard STN, First Trust or Fidelity. I believe all of these can handle omnibus-level trades.

[Guest Carol Ringwald]

Regards ExpertPlan and Benefitstreet. I know one group that is using Benefitstreet and they have had some difficulties with them. You may also want to try the Newport Group. They purchased TeamVest, which has been providing outsourcing trading for quite some time.