401k/profit sharing plan record keeping

[Gary]

We have recently implemented some 401k/profit sharing plans for small employers (i.e. less than 25 employees).

WHile I am able to perform non discrimination testing and account balance record keeping with the assistance of excel spreadsheets, I am curious to hear any suggestions as to what software or method to use for preparing client/participant statements of account balances? This can include using excel to do this too; which would even be preferred.

Let's assume that the account balance and census data are maintained on excel spreadsheets and can be used as input data for the statements.

Thanks for any ideas.

[abanky]

i don't know why anyone would need anything other then excel for 401k PS plans...

[JanetM]

There are a few software programs out there to do this. If you are only doing a few small plans I don't know if cost/benefit would be positive. If you intend to add more plans a software program might make sense.

Two names come to mind- Datair and Relius.

Disclaimer - I don't have connections to either company.

[masteff]

A statement product that I like is called Fringe Facts from http://www.bsiweb.com ; I hesitate because it's geared more for comprehensive benefits statements, but no reason you couldn't narrow it from total comp picture to just 401(k)/PS. Two nice features are that you can load the data from excel spreadsheets and that you can have conditional text (such as if Loan=Yes, then add a paragraph about loans).

If you just want something simple, a mail merge in Word might be an attractive alternative.

[SoCalActuary]

So, tell me why this is in the DB/CB forum? There are lots of good posts on this in the 401(k) forum.

And, by the way, don't forget ASC, another widely-used small to mid-sized plan vendor.

[Gary]

Thanks for the responses.

Since I am an actuary and this message board is my long-time stomping ground, I wanted to initiate communications here and then ultimately go to the 401k message board, if necessary.

I like the idea of either excel communications or word document mail/merge.

I presume it is easy to merge excel data into a word document. And I presume I can create a template of text in an excel spreadsheet (without having to mess with macros) that can access the excel data.

Any suggestions as to how to most efficiently incorporate excel data into an excel template would be helpful. Thinking off the top of my head I might have to manually refer to the cells for each participant's data one at a time. Of course since my plans have generally less than 20 participants it isn't too big of a deal.

Our firm does have Relius and I can tinker with it as well; though I don't think we have any reference manual for the software.

Thanks

[wsp]

I used Word Merge to create statements for awhile, but I ran into problems with formatting when upgrading to Word 2002. Same spreadsheet would create two different formatting outputs when using Word 2000 versus Word 2002. That and the fact that in about 3 hours you can create a quality workbook that will contain all of the data, run all of your discrim tests, and give you output for plans with under 20 participants, I'm not sure you would ever need to use Word. Stick to EXCEL and spend a few extra hours on the visual look of the output and don't worry about Word.

[abanky]

I don't think anyone has a manual for relius

I'd stick to excel as well and not worry about the mail merge... take the time to develop a macro what will produce your statements to either printer or adobe (that's what i prefer).

[Gary]

The excel solution is beginning to make the most sense to me.

And printing to Adobe sounds like a good idea as well.

Thanks much.

I will investigate that approach.

Gary