Carol the Writer

[Guest Carol the Writer]

We are considering a move away from Datair, after more than 20 years with that firm. There are a few requirements that a replacement system should meet in order to be suitable for us. First of all, it must be small-plan friendly. We have about 100 DB (including 412(i) plans), and the largest plan has about 30 participants. We have about 400 more DC plans, with the largest plan having perhaps 3,000 participants.

We also need a decent proposal system as a part of this. The output need not be beautiful, only readable. However, it absolutely must accomodate the type of creative plan designs that we have come to know to and love. (PLANGEN and like services need not apply. FYI, PLANGEN is not only restrictive as to plan design, it is only an assist to manually computed actuarial valuations. I'd never get through 100 plans yearly if I hade to do more than half of the work manually.)

Also, Datair provides documents, which would be a plus, but not mandatory.

Does anyone have any ideas on a suitable replacement system for our firm? What about document systems (prototype and volume submitter), as well as proposal and valuation systems? Any ideas or recommendations about past experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance! Carol Caruthers, MSPA, EA for E. Dominic Firmani

[SoCalActuary]

The major vendors I know are Datair, ASC, and Sungard/Relius/Corbel. All have valuation, proposal and document capacity.

However, documents from McKay or Accudraft might be better choices.

Other software companies to consider include BlazeSSI or Larry Deutsch Enterprises.

I have no experience with Blaze, but LDE has excellent reputation for cutting edge designs.

[AndyH]

What type of "creative designs" do you refer to?

[Guest Donkey Kong]

I like multiple QSLOB's as a viable option for consideration.

[AndyH]