conversion confusion

[PensionNewbee]

I'm fairly new to the whole conversion process - fairly new to the pension industry in general. I work for a small TPA in the midwest, and I was wondering what other TPAs do as far as "conversion work" is it normal for the TPA to be involved in the transfer of assets? By that I mean is it normal for the TPA to tell the new service provider how to break out the assets to be allocated to participants' accounts? Does that have any bearing on fiduciary issues?

I've seen a couple conversions where the asset providers do all the work, including breaking out the assets to be allocated to participants' accounts, and then I've been involved in a conversion where I've had to break out the assets and show the new asset provider how to allocate the funds. Is there a standard way to do a conversion properly?

[Guest Achilles]

I've done some conversion and deconversion work.

When I've deconverted a plan that was going to another recordkeeper, we did provide a breakdown of the assets by participant - showing the source and funds the dollars were last invested in (funds and sources they were liquidated from).

We didn't tell the new RK how to allocate these dollars, that should already be setup between the RK and the sponsor.

I've seen where the participants will choose new elections, or the assets will be mapped.

Basically, a spreadsheet will work:

SSN, NAME, DOLLARS, SOURCE, FUND

This is just the bare necessities. Lots of other financials would need provided: YTD contributions (possibly), LTD contributions (by source, for hardship available amounts), etc.

[Guest yukon]

Newbee:

It depends on the type of conversion. You can transfer assets in-kind, mapping to like investments, or liquidate/transfer/reallocate to totally new investments. Depending on the type of conversion, you may need to provide different levels of conversion data to the new RK. Also, your idea about the custodian providing all conversion data would only work if the custodian held assets at the participant level.

As far as fiduciary issues, that dictates how active you should be in the process - assuming a "deconversion" (ie., plan leaving you for another RK). As a rule, you should do whatever the Sponsor asks of you. Remember, any problems with the plan caused by current service provider do not go away when the plan goes away. Your fidiuciary liability exists even after the plan goes.

my 2 cents.