Wide Format Imaging

Diversified Financial Advisors (DFA), in cooperation with ePlan Services, now offers Printers 401k, an online retirement plan for printing companies which is based on a management strategy described by DFA as Prudence 360E. "This is our term for our approach to 401(k) plans that helps printers reduce their fiduciary reliability and protects their employees' financial resources. This is especially critical when program providers credit their clients' accounts with fees paid to them by mutual funds," said John Moynihan, president of DFA.

The individual Printers 401(k) plans are developed and supported by ePlan Services which specializes in creating online 401(k) plans for small and mid-sized businesses.

When describing the role his company plays in Prudence 360E Mark Gutrich, president of ePlan Services referred to "pending Department of Labor requirements regarding fee disclosures that have prompted some fee-based advisors to pass through mutual fund concessions to their plan sponsors to reduce complicated record keeping fee offsets. But unless done properly, this procedure can actually create a fiduciary risk for the plan sponsors by denying some participants the full amount of the concessions due them and providing dollars or economic benefit to other participants who own no shares in the funds providing the concessions."

Gutrich continued, "this happens when the advisors do not have the ability to precisely allocate concessions to each participant's account. As a result, some of them apply these dollars equally among all plan participants giving those who do not own its shares income they do not deserve. Another approach is to use these funds to offset plan administrative costs, meaning the individuals whose investment holdings generated the concession dollars see them used to offset everyone's costs."

DFA's Moynihan said, "We avoid this pitfall because of ePlan Services robust software that supports 401(k) plans. We can track which funds pay fees, how much they pay, which plans have participants invested in those funds and precisely how much each participant's share of the concession should be. This is automatically, instantly and constantly calculated across the dozens of funds, hundreds of plans and thousands of participants we serve. So, we're providing accurate disclosure and protecting our customers by eliminating any fiduciary risk resulting from unfair allocations."