black out notice

[Lori H]

It would seem since this is a money issue, i.e. money is being moved from one provider to another, that the financial company who is taking over the assets would provide the notice to the plan sponsor. Is this usually the case?

[Belgarath]

Not in my experience. Unless the financial company accepting the assets is also a TPA, how would they even know the proper information, etc.? Normally, it is prepared by the TPA/Plan Administrator. I say "normally" with the caveat that there's nothing normal about this business...

[Lori H]

Hmm, well I would think that the financial adviser would be the one to coordinate the transfer of assets and the date the transaction is to occur as a non producing TPA has minimal access to assets. In some instances it would seem that taking over of assets would be a common transaction for financial institutions and that they would have a form Black Out notice that they would issue to the client. Seems pretty much standard procedure.

Any other opinions?

[WDIK]

I agree with Belgarath.

The Plan Administrator carries the responsibility for disseminating the notice, but could certainly authorize other entites to do so.

[Lori H]

Huh, well fair enough. In years of doing TPA work, we have never been asked/required to provide one. These have always been handled by whoever is getting the plan assets. I guess will file this under our government compliance scope.

[four01kman]

Lori,

The TPAs I work with prepare the blackout notice. As a financial advisor, I assist in the selection, monitoring and replacement of investment options. The TPAs generally work with the financial custodians (trustees) who actually do the financial transactions.

[rcline46]

The provision of the Black Out notice is assigned by the DOL to the Plan Administrator. In order to create the notice, they need to know when the current service provided requires the plan to be locked down so that all transactions are complete by liquidation date. Then they need information from the current provider as to when the final reconcilation will be done and provided to the new provider.

Then they need to know how long it will take the new provider to process the provided final valuation and send investment instructions to the new financial institution.

[Lori H]

The provision of the Black Out notice is assigned by the DOL to the Plan Administrator. In order to create the notice, they need to know when the current service provided requires the plan to be locked down so that all transactions are complete by liquidation date. Then they need information from the current provider as to when the final reconcilation will be done and provided to the new provider.

Then they need to know how long it will take the new provider to process the provided final valuation and send investment instructions to the new financial institution.

Exactly. Seems the new/current provider would know this better than the TPA.

[WDIK]

Are you equating the terms Plan Administrator and TPA?

[Guest Eric.]

As with Lori H's post of , in 10 yrs of providing TPA services, I have never been asked either. The TPA typically gets this information from the Providor to begin with ...

[Lori H]

Are you equating the terms Plan Administrator and TPA?

Not necessarily, I know ultimately the plan sponsor is responsible. However, if their is no TPA (and we know there are some plans that don't have one), this info would have to be provided to the plan sponsor by someone.

I have no qualms with providing the notice, it's just it's never been in our scope of services. All black out notices I have ever seen have come from the provider and I was just curious as to others experience.

Thanks for the replies.

[Below Ground]

As a non-producing TPA, we have been asked to provide the notice on a number of occassions. I can also say that some financial institutions automatically provide the notice. Our experience is that if the financial institution is not doing the notice, we will need to do it for the Sponsor. Otherwise, you can bet that it would not get done.

[SheilaD]

Here's my two cents. I was with a non-producing TPA for a long time. Over the last couple of years we were asked in maybe 10% of the asset transfer cases to prepare the black-out notice. Usually the broker taking over the assets would ask us especially if she/he was our source for the business. Our company has changed owners and we are now a "producing" TPA (I guess -- the owner sells product). I've just been setting up the proceedure so that all of our plan administrators know how to process the transfer of assets, including black-out notices, notice of termiation to prior asset holder etc. This will be part of our service going forward.

[Guest KAL]

It would seem since this is a money issue, i.e. money is being moved from one provider to another, that the financial company who is taking over the assets would provide the notice to the plan sponsor. Is this usually the case?

Hello

Work with your providers. It is the plan sponsor who is ultimately responsible, however, the provider should have done this before. See if the provider will give you their normal communication notice and review it. Then you can begin using this communication as your base document to update and modify.

The black out notice should be mailed home, placed on the provider's website etc so that employees know that a for a certain number of days, they will not be able to access their accounts because assets are being moved. The most important part of this is employee communications. The new provider should be sending out materials as how employees will be able to access their information. Legal, Human Resources/Benefits, and your providers, or fiduciary of your plans should all be conferenced in so that you can prepare a plan and determine roles and responsibilities. I have done this before and good communication amongst the right people can get this done. Conference calls with everyone who is involved should start as soone as possible.

[Kimberly S]

On my first TPA, the notice was provided by the independent attorney who restated the documents with the dates to be completed by the financial people or employer after consulting with them. On my current job with a bundled service provider, the notice is provided by the TPA area of the business for incoming plans. We also provide a sample notice to all outgoing plans as a reminder that it needs to be done.