Products and Services
Insurance
As much as we try to prepare for them, tragic events like death, disability or critical illness sometimes strike. When faced with such a situation, insurance can protect policy holders and their families from undue hardship. For this reason, a variety of insurance coverage is essential to any comprehensive financial plan.
Insurance planning is best when tailored to fit its owner’s personal situation: whether designed for a single person or family; professional or seasonal employees; executive or small business owner, everyone can benefit from an appropriately customized plan.
- Life
- Term
- Long-term care, disability and critical illness
- Hybrid Policies (Long Term Care & Life)
- Health and dental
- Group health benefits
- Variable Annuities
- Fixed Annuities
Corporate Retirement Plan Advisory Services
Role of a Retirement Plan Advisor
As a plan sponsor and fiduciary to your company’s retirement plan, you have certain responsibilities to ensure optimal investments, reasonable fees, and informed participants. With an advisor at your side, you can navigate these waters smoothly and with confidence to create a best practices retirement plan that helps protect you from liability and loss while promoting positive participant outcomes.
Plan fiduciaries must act as prudent experts under ERISA, and are therefore held to a high standard of care with respect to plan-related decisions regarding investments, service providers, plan administration, and general ERISA compliance issues. Most prudent plan sponsors hire a plan consultant (advisor) to assist them in adhering to ERISA’s rigorous standards, and to meet their objective of offering a best practices 401(k) or 403(b) plan to their employees.
How do you know if your company is meeting these challenges? How do you select service providers or investments – what are the criteria? How do you know if your plan is working? Does your company have the resources to handle these responsibilities alone? How do you know that you are in compliance with the new fee disclosure rules?
Unless your company has dedicated employees with 401(k) expertise who focus solely on managing your employee retirement plan, you should consider hiring a fiduciary retirement plan advisor who specializes in 401(k) plans and is dedicated to helping you and your employees get the most out of their retirement plan.
Services We Offer
Maintaining an appropriate retirement plan for your company often seems like a daunting task, especially when you consider everything else that goes into running a successful business. In general, our value added retirement plan services can be segmented into the following components:
1) Benchmarking your current 401(k) plan. We benchmark the fees, services and participation metrics of your plan against similar plans using industry leading research. This service satisfies the fiduciary obligations under both ERISA and the new 408(b)(2) fee disclosure rules. We then can make recommendations for any changes to your plan to reduce costs and improve service for your participants.
2) Performing plan design consulting. A review of the plan design is very important because plan design provisions can make a big difference in whether your plan maximizes the benefits available. These provisions address matching contribution formulas, cross-tested profit sharing allocations, qualification and eligibility issues, and merger and acquisition situations. Cetera Advisor Networks, LLC will work closely with the provider’s administration experts to ensure that all available aspects of plan design are considered.
3) Assisting in the design an Investment Policy Statement (IPS). As a plan sponsor, you can minimize your fiduciary liability by implementing an IPS. An IPS outlines a detailed, prudent plan of action for the plan’s investment managers and advisors to follow. It describes the plan’s investment philosophy, risk tolerance and long-term goals to help guide all decisions made regarding the plan. Because the IPS is in writing, it helps prevent misunderstandings between you and the plan’s advisors.
4) Providing ongoing plan reviews. We review your plan operational metrics such as participation levels, deferral percentages, loans, non-discrimination testing, enrollment and communication services. We also prepare performance analysis of investments utilized by the plan versus benchmarks and/or peer groups; monitor funds selected by the plan sponsor for style drift and correlation with fund investment objectives stated in the IPS; and provide regulatory and compliance updates.
5) Managing employee communication and investment education. We believe that coordinating enrollment meetings and providing ongoing investment education for participants regarding plan options is a valuable part of our service. That’s why we will be available to your employees by phone and in person for individual consultation. If enrollment and/or education teams from the provider are necessary due to multiple company locations, we will coordinate those efforts. We also provide supplemental educational materials if desired.
6) Personal customized financial and estate planning for Employees. Finally, we will educate plan participants about plan distribution alternatives, provide retirement cash flow analysis, and, whenever necessary, consult with retirees regarding investment asset allocation.
Wealth and Investment Management
We specialize in the design and management of custom investment portfolios. To best serve you, our client, we believe in an adherence to a process, rather than a product. This knowledge-based approach enables us to provide creative thinking, comprehensive services and customized solutions to a wide variety of clients.
We strive to minimize volatility in your portfolio, with a bias toward low-cost products. Our sensitivity to cost and how it impacts returns is one of the principles that appeals to our clients.
Developing an appropriate asset allocation mix for you is a critical step in our process. We avoid trying to time the market, opting instead for a steady, long-term approach. Our philosophy also stresses the importance of broad diversification and tax efficiency.
By evaluating and revaluating both your goals and the pool of products at our disposal, we strive to put you in the best position to benefit from the potential growth in all of the various asset classes, sectors and industries.
There are many financial products in the market, and so choosing the ones that best meet your needs can be complicated. That’s where we can help. We can offer professional advice to help you choose only those products that support your current and future goals.
We aim to help you make informed decisions about the products in your portfolio. To do this, after meeting to discuss your needs, we draw on a comprehensive suite of products and services to find those that address your unique situation.
From mortgage payments to tax savings, a strategy for managing money effectively involves a consideration of individual contexts.
- Saving
- Tax Planning
- Succession Planning
- Mortgages
- Financial Planning for Business Owners
- Business Succession Planning
