Press Release

He Cerrado Group Celebrates Its Second Anniversary and Looks Toward Future

Issued by The Cerrado Group

Feb. 28, 2023

NATIONAL – TPA Collective, The Cerrado Group is celebrating the second anniversary of its formal foundation as a 501(c)(6) Trade Association. While the core members of the group have worked together and shared knowledge for many years, the formalization of the group in 2021 was the beginning of a new force in the Retirement Plan industry. This member only group that was started by nine of the leading TPA firms in the nation has grown to 14 member firms, serving 23,000+ plans, 755,000+ plan participants, and $43.5 billion total plan assets under administration. It has quickly positioned itself as a meaningful organization to the key players in the field.

Over the past two years, The Cerrado Group has accomplished a series of meaningful tasks focused on their ultimate goal of enhancing the entire industry through stringent and well thought out practices and standards. These initiatives included:

• A complete survey of Cerrado Group Member firms’ staff to identify how to better serve their employees and create a culture in the member firms that leads to maximum employee engagement and minimal turnover.
• The Cerrado Group Audit Services Program – by partnering with leading audit firms Kimberlin Company and Lee CPA Audit Group, member firms offer specific retirement plan audit services to their clients with special Cerrado Group fee structures and content.
• In December of 2022, as part of the groups’ commitment to protecting the data and Personal Identifiable Information (PII) of their Plans Sponsors, participants and Centers of Influence, the Cerrado Group announced the launch of The Cerrado Standard, an Industry leading cyber security policy that all Cerrado Group member firms must adhere to. This new standard was created in conjunction with leading Cyber Security and Compliance company MegaPlanIT.

Founding member Pat Shelton, Benefit Plans Plus, St. Louis, MO says “Collectively, the spirit of trust and collaboration between TCG members is unparalleled. We are exceptionally proud of the Association’s expansion and accomplishments in the first two years. We have grown to 14 member firms and are making a measurable difference in our businesses while advocating for all Third Party Administrators (TPA’s) of retirement plans. Our focus is to ensure the highest retirement plan outcomes for all stakeholders. We have successfully aggregated and mined our collective data and created metrics to support our growth and successes and have received exceptional support from our Recordkeeper, Audit and Payroll partners. Our first major initiative was to assess and implement an industry-leading Cyber Security Standard setting the bar for other Retirement Plan Consultants—and we are just getting started.”

As for the future, The Cerrado Group’s next major focus will be to define a plan that outlines how they will achieve their goal of being the Industry leading TPA organization on the country.

About the Cerrado Group:

The Cerrado Group was founded by Nine of the nation’s preeminent Third Party Administrator (TPA) consulting firms, this member only, 501(c)(6) Trade Association was established to offer an entirely new approach to the highly specialized work of retirement plan design, reporting, compliance, administration, and industry education. The Cerrado Group members, while remaining independent regional operators, actively combine their vast resources to fully serve the retirement plan industry at large

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