There are thousands of retirement plan administrators you can turn to get a 401k plan or IRA for your business. Administrators can be insurance companies, mutual fund companies, or financial services companies. The main distinction is whether a retirement plan administrator provides full services or an unbundled suite of options.

Bundled services
The majority of small to mid-size businesses turn to retirement plan administrators for bundled services. They provide full plan administration and 401k investment activities. You also have a single point of contact to answer any questions or concerns.

However, bundled services only offer limited investment options, and you would need to bring special advisors in at additional cost to provide investment advice for your staff.

Unbundled services
Retirement plan administrators offer unbundled services featuring in-house staff and independent service providers – investment managers, trustees, record keepers – to design a 401k plan. For example, you can have an in-house HR professional handle record keeping, while turning to an outside vendor to handle investment management or discrimination testing. Unbundled plans offer flexibility since the plan is designed on your terms.

Unfortunately, the only way to keep administrative costs low for unbundled services is to work on them in-house. That would require a great deal of resources – probably another one or two extra salaried employees.

Finding the right retirement plan administrators
The best thing about working with retirement plan administrators is they help make the decision easy for you. And locating the right retirement plan administrator to work with couldn’t be easier. Simply submit a free BuyerZone request for employee retirement plan quotes, and we’ll match you to as many as six different retirement plan administrators. Once you meet with each administrator, you’ll learn which service is best for you and your employees.