ERISA
It’s boring!
It’s complicated!
It’s a big law!
But it is the standard you are held to!
UNPARRELLED OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCIES
&
COMPLIANCE PROTECTION
Fully Compliant with PTE 2020-02 and Regulatory Notice 13-45
Protection from Failure to Supervise
About CRPA
PTE CRPATM
PTE CRPA is specifically engineered to detect and prevent violations of, and achieve compliance with, all conditions of the exemption itself, enabling firms using our advanced multi-level compliance oversight functionality to manage the rollover recommendation workflow in real-time. This empowers organizations to mitigate exposure to, and the associated costs of, self-correcting.
Complying with an SEC or DOL information request takes only minutes, no matter how extensive the request or how large the firm, saving you time and money.
DOL Q20… In addition to making the investor whole for any resulting losses, self correction requires a firm to notify the Department within 30 days of correction and the persons responsible for conducting the retrospective review described in Q19 of the violation and correction, and the violation and correction must be specifically set forth in the written report of the retrospective review.
Are you confident with your PTE 2020 – 02 compliance process?
401(k) CRPATM
Are you a plan fiduciary wanting to learn more about how plans work and how your plan compares to some of the industry’s Best-In- Class service providers?
401(k) CRPATM is a plan sponsor initiated comparative assessment tool. 401(k) CRPATM helps validate that your plan is meeting the DOL’s standard of reasonableness, and if not, shows you what reasonableness looks like, comparing your fees and services to the industry’s best in class.
Solutions
Financial Service Firms
PTE CRPATM
PTE CRPA presents an unparalleled compliance solution, recognized for its…
• ease of use
• exceptional customer support
• priority for maintaining the highest level of data and cyber security
• robust real-time review, correction notification and report approval
workflows
• digital signatures
• advisor support team access (workflows to protect against failure to supervise)
• Faegre Drinker disclosures…auto integration, guarantees delivery of
disclosures
• integrate 3rd party reports ( investment comparison reports, etc.)
• individualized investor documentation library…retain supporting IRA/401k statements, fee disclosures, etc. within each investor profile
• investor report read receipts
• retirement plan lookup portal
Reports
• compliance oversight/monitoring reports
• advisor recommendation summary reports
• compliance correction history reports
• rollover approval status report (compliance and advisor access)
Firms with 100 advisors or more
• Super Admin function
• White labeled platform
• Fully customizable qualitative questionnaire
• API’s to integrate with account opening programs
• Flat rate pricing…eliminate the need to manage subscriptions for new
and terminated advisors
Additional features we don’t charge extra for!
• unlimited advisor support team member access
• unlimited compliance personnel access
• audit reports
• regulatory audit assistance
TOOLS TO GROW AUM
• 401k CRPA…401k prospecting, plan sponsor fiduciary training and bench-marking platform
Use fee disclosures collected for 401k rollovers to prospect new 401(k) plan clients.
Our distinct focus on audit controls instills the highest level of compliance confidence, allowing a senior member of the firm to sign the annual retrospective review with confidence.
Interested in owning your compliance solution rather than paying subscription fees?
Explore the possibilities!
401(k) CRPATM
401(k) CRPA is the perfect tool to help you develop relationships with plan sponsors.
FIDUCIARY TRAINING PLAN SPONSORS CAN USE
- 401(k) CRPATM is a non-intrusive, plan sponsor initiated, fiduciary training and fee comparison tool.
- Advisor introduced, at no cost to the plan sponsor. Create email campaigns to prospects containing a unique access key to the 401(k) CRPATM platform.
As a plan sponsor goes through the questionnaire, the CRPATM support team is there to help the plan sponsor.
Progress notifications are sent to the Advisor throughout the process. As the introducing advisor, you can follow the plan sponsor’s progress in the 401(k) CRPATM platform.
401(K) CRPATM IS A PLAN BENCHMARKING SOLUTION
Upon the plan sponsor completing the CRPATM questionnaire the advisor enters its best-in-class service provider data and releases the comparison retirement plan assessment report to the employer.
These are the fundamental questions you need to understand.
Q 10 What is required to comply with PTE 2020 – 02?
PTE 2020-02 conditions prohibited transaction relief on financial institutions (SEC- and state-registered investment advisers, broker-dealers, banks, and insurance companies) and their investment professionals (employees, agents, and representatives) providing advice in accordance with the Impartial Conduct Standards. Financial institutions must also acknowledge in writing their investment professionals’ fiduciary status under Title I of ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code, as applicable, when providing investment advice to the retirement investor, and they must describe in writing the services to be provided and the financial institutions’ and investment professionals’ material conflicts of interest. Financial institutions must document the reasons that a rollover recommendation is in the best interest of the retirement investor and provide that documentation to the retirement investor. Financial institutions must adopt policies and procedures prudently designed to ensure compliance with the Impartial Conduct Standards and that mitigate conflicts of interest, and must conduct an annual retrospective review of compliance.
To ensure that financial institutions provide reasonable oversight of investment professionals and adopt a culture of compliance, financial institutions and investment professionals will be ineligible to rely on the exemption if, within the previous 10 years, they were convicted of certain crimes arising out of their provision of investment advice to retirement investors. They will also be ineligible if they engaged in systematic or intentional violation of the exemption’s conditions or provided materially misleading information to the Department in relation to their conduct under the exemption.
Q 15 What factors should financial institutions and investment professionals consider and document in their disclosure of the reasons that a rollover recommendation is in a retirement investors best interest?
Financial institutions and investment professionals must consider and document their prudent analysis of why a rollover recommendation is in a retirement investor’s best interest. To satisfy the documentation requirement for rollovers from an employee benefit plan to an IRA, investment professionals and financial institutions should make diligent and prudent efforts to obtain information about the existing employee benefit plan and the participant’s interests in it. For recommendations to roll over assets from an employee benefit plan to an IRA, the relevant factors include but are not limited to:
- the alternatives to a rollover, including leaving the money in the investor’s employer’s plan, if permitted;
- the fees and expenses associated with both the plan and the IRA;
- whether the employer pays for some or all of the plan’s administrative expenses; and
- the different levels of services and investments available under the plan and the IRA.
To satisfy the documentation requirement for rollovers from an employee benefit plan to an IRA, investment professionals and financial institutions should make diligent and prudent efforts to obtain information about the existing employee benefit plan and the participant’s interests in it. In general, such information should be readily available as a result of Department regulations mandating disclosure of plan-related information to the plan’s participants (see 29 CFR 2550.404a-5). If the retirement investor won’t provide the information, even after a full explanation of its significance, and the information is not otherwise readily available, the financial institution and investment professional should make a reasonable estimation of expenses, asset values, risk, and returns based on publicly available information. The financial institution and investment professional should document and explain the assumptions used and their limitations.
Q 19 What is the exemption’s annual retrospective review requirement and what is its purpose?
Financial institutions must conduct an annual retrospective review that is reasonably designed to assist them in detecting and preventing violations of, and achieving compliance with, the Impartial Conduct Standards and their policies and procedures. The methodology and results of the retrospective review must be reduced to a written report that is provided to one of the financial institution’s senior executive officers, who must then make certain certifications related to their review of the report. The financial institution must retain the report, certification, and supporting data for six years and provide these documents to the Department within 10 business days of a request.
The Department expects financial institutions to use the results of the review to find more effective ways to help ensure that investment professionals are providing investment advice in accordance with the Impartial Conduct Standards and to correct any deficiencies in existing policies and procedures. Senior executive officers should carefully review the report before making the required certifications, so that they can make the certifications with confidence. Making the certifications without carefully reviewing the report would constitute a violation of the exemption. This ensures that the financial institution, through an appropriate senior executive officer, is fully accountable for the retrospective review. The requirement that financial institutions make their report of their retrospective review available to the Department within 10 business days upon request ensures that the Department retains an appropriate level of oversight over exemption compliance.
Q20. Is there any way for financial institutions to correct violations of the exemption?
Yes, PTE 2020-02 contains a correction procedure for financial institutions to correct certain violations. Financial institutions can correct violations of the exemption within 90 days after the financial institution learns, or reasonably should have learned, of the violation. If the violation did not result in investment losses to the retirement investor or the financial institution made the retirement investor whole for any resulting losses, the financial institution can correct the violation and notify the Department within 30 days of correction. The financial institution must notify the persons responsible for conducting the retrospective review described in Q19 of the violation and correction, and the violation and correction must be specifically set forth in the written report of the retrospective review.
Q 21 How will the Department enforce compliance with the exemption?
The Department has investigative and interpretive authority with respect to exemption compliance. For plans covered by ERISA Title I, the Department will investigate for compliance with the exemption and enforce the Title I protections. In addition, participants, beneficiaries, and fiduciaries of these plans have a statutory cause of action under Section 502 of ERISA for fiduciary breaches and prohibited transactions. For IRAs and other non-Title I plans, the Department has interpretive authority to determine whether the exemption conditions have been satisfied and transmits information to the IRS for enforcement of the excise tax. In marked contrast to the 2016 rulemaking, the new exemption does not impose contract or warranty requirements on the financial institutions or investment professionals responsible for compliance. The exemption also does not expand retirement investors’ ability to enforce their rights in court or create any new legal claims beyond those in Title I of ERISA and the Code.
The exemption also includes several provisions intended to support and incentivize compliance. In addition to the annual retrospective review and self-correction discussed in previous FAQs, the exemption also encourages compliance by setting forth circumstances under which financial institutions and investment professionals can become ineligible to rely on the exemption for a period of 10 years. Parties can become ineligible following conviction for specified crimes, or if they have engaged in systematic or intentional violation of the exemption’s conditions or provided materially misleading information to the Department in relation to their conduct under the exemption.
ARE YOU READY FOR
PTE 2020-02?
Scan this QR code to see the DOL’s Q&A
Plan Sponsors
401(k) CRPATM
You’re not just a plan fiduciary, it’s your retirement benefit too!
A plan sponsor and those employees tasked with running the plan, have a fiduciary obligation to routinely monitor and document that plan services continue to meet the needs of its plan participants, at a reasonable cost. It’s not a race to the lowest fees. Fees have a qualitative component; in that fees need to be evaluated in the context of the level service being provided.
So where do you start?
How it Works
Request Your Free Access Key
For a limited time, you can request a FREE access key.
401(k) CRPATM is a self-administered assessment of your organization’s 401k plan. You’ll gain instant access and can get started right away. That’s a savings of $1,499.
Upon completing your 401(k) CRPATM, share your comments to help make the CRPATM experience even better for the next plan sponsor and lunch is on us!
Complete the Assessment
Once you’ve requested your free access key, you can log in and start answering questions about your organization’s 401k plan. Don’t have time to complete all the questions in one sitting? No problem, you can work at your own pace and log back on when you’re ready. And if you get stuck or aren’t sure of how to answer a question, you can call or chat online with one of our support team.
We recommend that you have a copy of your plan’s most recent Form 5500 and 408(b)(2) or 404(a)(5) disclosures available to refer to as you complete the questionnaire. Your plan may also have separate service agreements with a TPA, 3(21) Advisor and/or 3(38) Investment Manager. You may need to refer to these documents as you answer the CRPATM questions. Call our support team if you need assistance finding these documents on your current plan providers website.
Fiduciary Training You Can Use
After you’ve completed the assessment, 401(k) CRPATM will provide you with documentation supporting that you are taking steps to oversee your plan and acting in your participants’ best interests.
Your 401(k) CRPATM report will serve as a basis for ….
- confirming your fees and services continue to provide the desired value, or
- fees and services can be improved without changing service providers, or
- it’s time to engage in an RFP process.
Moving forward, you will have a better understanding of what type of fee, admin/recordkeeping, advisor and custodial arrangement works best for your organization and its employees.
Ready to get started? Click here to request your FREE access key today.
Pricing
Financial Service Firms
50 subscriptions or more…call for direct invoicing.
PTE CRPA
$49.92
$39.93 *
/user/month**
Annual Subscription
Sale tax is not included Sale tax may apply based on your state.
Subscription are for a single user.
401(k) CRPA
$99.92
$79.93 *
/user/month**
Annual Subscription
PTE & 401(k) CRPA
$124.92
$99.93 *
/user/month**
Annual Subscription
Plan Sponsors
- 401(k) CRPA$1499
Pricing
Financial Service Firms
No premium add-ons. No hidden fees.
Just a straightforward compliance solution with refreshingly simple, all-inclusive pricing.
50 subscriptions or more…call for direct invoicing.
Call For Pricing.
303-792-7003
Plan Sponsors
For a limited time, qualified Plan Sponsers can request a FREE access key.
That’s a savings of $1499. Compare your plan to Best-In-Class service providers.
Fiduciary education you can use. You’ll gain instant access and can get started right away.
Financial Service Firms
50 subscriptions or more…call for direct invoicing.
PTE CRPA
$49.92
$39.93 *
/user/month**
Annual Subscription
* Sale tax is not included Sale tax may apply based on your state.
** Subscriptions are for a single user.
401(k) CRPA
$99.92
$79.93 *
/user/month**
Annual Subscription
PTE & 401(k) CRPA
$124.92
$99.93 *
/user/month**
Annual Subscription
Plan Sponsors
- 401(k) CRPA$1499Unlimited access & Support