We’re A Credentialed Team of Retirement Specialists

Who do you want to handle your 401k plan’s investments? Our “Team of Retirement Specialists” or an individual stockbroker or insurance agent, who is acting as a middleman for mutual funds.

 

A stockbroker or insurance agent’s job is to solicit and “sign up” your company’s 401k plan and then hand it off to a third-party mutual fund or insurance company for investment management. Company owners and employees are then provided with a 1-800-HELP phone line or online “do-it-yourself” tools, but everyone in your 401k plan must make their own investment selections and portfolio allocations and re-allocations, with no professional advice. When your plan’s stockbroker or insurance agent retires, leaves the industry, or changes firms, your 401k plan becomes an orphan…your 401k plan is arbitrarily assigned to someone unknown by you at the brokerage firm or insurance company.

 

We are a highly credentialed, in-house team of experienced, professional 401k financial advisors. We currently, discretionarily manage over $200 million of client portfolio assets. Our team is comprised of Certified Financial Planners (CFP), Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA), Certified Retirement Counselors (CRC), and Accredited Investment Fiduciaries (AIF). Our team pools and coordinates our expertise, in-depth knowledge, and skills for the benefit of you and each of your 401k plan participants. The collective expertise of our elite team is all-inclusive as part of your plan’s advisory annual cost.

 

 

We Are Discretionary Portfolio Managers

We are the perfect fit for your company’s 401k plan if you want a professional, 401k financial advisor to do the day-to-day, heavy lifting of investing and portfolio management. We’re minding the investment store, while you and your employees focus on your company’s business. Your company reclaims the time employees often spend during work hours managing their 401k investments instead of doing their jobs. Employees are relieved and grateful for being provided with professional investment management, thus eliminating both their investing frustrations and their potential bad decisions that erode their 401k retirement balances.

 

Our written investment policy statement for your 401k plan governs the parameters of our portfolio management. Only within these parameters do we discretionarily make the individual investment selections and future rebalancing allocations in your company’s collectively managed portfolio. While we do not consult your plan’s investment committee prior to buying or selling investments in your company’s collectively managed 401k portfolio, your 401k plan trustees stay well informed via trade confirmations, monthly activity statements, quarterly portfolio performance reports, annual review meetings with your plan’s investment committee and group meetings with plan participants.

 

We utilize Charles Schwab & Co., a full-service, national financial firm, to custody your company 401k plan’s portfolio assets. We do not have the discretionary authority or ability to remove cash or securities from your plan, only your company’s designated plan trustee(s) retain this authority. We are fiduciary advisors, so it is incumbent upon us, by law, to always place your plan’s best interest before our own. Additionally, because we do not charge commissions or get paid by mutual funds, any advantage that we could possibly gain by excessively trading your 401k plan’s pooled portfolio is completely eliminated.

 

 

Why Discretionary Management?

 

If you and your employees are each managing your investments in your own 401k plan account, objective investing on each individual’s part is very difficult.

 

The average investor is vulnerable to poor decision-making that leads to irrational buying and selling at the wrong time, resulting in investment underperformance. To properly invest, you need to emotionally detach yourself from your money. The emotions of fear, greed, regret, and pride lead to irrational investment decisions.

 

While the average investor perceives that they earned double-digit returns over the past 10 years, the surprising fact is that over the last 10 years, the average balanced investor earned a mere average per year in the low single digits on their investments. Earning only an average annually of 1% – 5% on your investment portfolio appears to be the price paid for allowing emotions to enter into investment decisions.

 

As your plan’s 401k financial advisor who exercises our discretionary management of your plan’s investments, you and your employees are allowed to separate your emotions from portfolio decisions. This separation may dramatically increase the odds that every plan participants’ portfolio will earn a rate of return that exceeds the long-term rate of return of the average balanced investor.

 

We Are Fee-Only Retirement Advisors

Our sole basis of compensation is Investment management fees. Our “Fee-Only” (commission free) approach to 401k investment management allows us to avoid advisor/client conflicts of interest and always place your company’s 401k Plan’s best interest first.

 

Our 401k Plan Advisory Fees are All Inclusive

• Investment Policy Statement Development
• Assistance Designing A Plan Document
• Professional Investment Management of Plan Assets
• Investment Performance Reports and Timely Meetings
• Financial Retirement Plans for Eligible Employees
• Our Concierge Services

Our Fee Schedule applies to 401k’s with total pooled plan assets over $1 million. The annual percentage cost for portfolios valued between $1,000,000 and $5,000,000 begins at 1.25% and declines incrementally to 1%, declining further for larger portfolios. As your 401k Plan’s value increases, your annual cost percentage incrementally decreases.

 

Because your plan’s assets are collectively managed by an ERISA 3(38) Registered Investment Advisor, your company may elect to pay Deane Retirement’s investment management fee, and/or your plan administration expenses, from outside of your plan’s investment portfolio. Plan fees and/or expenses paid directly by your company and not deducted from the plan assets, can then be used to increase your company’s tax deductions. But more importantly, plan costs paid outside of your plan assets don’t erode participants’ balances, so everyone’s 401k grows faster, providing more money for their and your future retirement. A true employee benefit!

 

 

 

Watch & Learn in a Nutshell…
The Top 3 Criteria for Choosing a Financial Advisor

 

 

 

 

We Are Fiduciary Advisors

When selecting your company plan’s 401k financial advisor, it is important to know that there are two primary types of 401k financial advisors: Fiduciary Advisors and Non-Fiduciary Advisors.

 

What are the differences between a Fiduciary and a Non-Fiduciary Advisor that significantly affect the investments in your company’s 401k plan?

 

• Fiduciary Advisors are Registered Investment Advisors ( RIAs ) while Non-Fiduciary Advisors are sales representatives of brokerage firms & insurance companies.

• Fiduciary Advisors are held to the highest ethical standards in the industry while Non-Fiduciary Advisors are held to lower ethical standards than Registered Investment Advisors.

• Fiduciary Advisors are required to make “The Best” recommendations for their clients, putting the investor’s interests ahead of their own interests, while Non-Fiduciary Advisors are required to make “suitable” but not necessarily the “best” recommendations for their client. Suitable is a vague standard because it can vary by investor.

• Fiduciary Advisors are the only professionals who can provide financial advice and ongoing services for a fee (rather than commissions), while Non-Fiduciary Advisors’ licenses (such as Series 6 or 7) limit them to selling investment products for commissions.

Before selecting your plan’s 401k financial advisor, determine if you want a Fiduciary, Registered Investment Advisor managing your 401k plan’s investments or if you want a middleman Sales Representative Stockbroker or Insurance Agent.

 

As an ERISA 3(38) fiduciary, Deane Retirement Strategies, a Registered Investment Advisor, legally accepts from you, as plan sponsor, the fiduciary investment liability for your 401k plan’s investments, thereby lowering your company’s fiduciary liability exposure to lawsuits from any plan participant who alleges that your plan’s trustees provided a poor plan investment selection menu and/or inadequate investment education.

Read about… Our 401k Plan Investment Management Strategy