Empowering retirement plan sponsors


RetireAware provides strategic consulting and plan management services in retirement markets
Our clients include some of the largest public K-12 and higher education systems in the U.S., retirement plan recordkeepers, a major broker-dealer, third-party plan administrators and private retirement plan sponsors.

Making the most of your employer-sponsored DC plans
Our work with plan sponsors focuses on developing retirement plan service models that protect against provider conflicts of interest. These conflicted providers can undermine participant retirement savings by promoting higher-cost-in-plan and non-plan products and services.
Here are some ways RetireAware has helped plan sponsors

Conflict of Interest Audit
A major K-12 school district had questions about the activities of providers in its multiple-service provider-defined contribution plans. Our conflict of interest audit provided a clearer picture of how commissioned representatives were promoting non-plan products–and pointed the way for contractual changes prohibiting activities that undermined the employer-sponsored plans.

Reining in Excess Fees
A major K-12 school district sought to better understand the financial cost to participants of rolling over distributions into retail proprietary products offered by plan service providers. Our analysis documented 10-year costs of over $8,500 per participant and provided the insight needed to negotiate provider contracts and move to a single service provider structure.

RFP Support
A public university retirement system was developing an RFP for recordkeeping services and sought to ensure that conflicts of interest did not undermine their plans. We helped them prepare a section of the RFP that identified potential conflicts and alerted bidders to practices that would not be acceptable.

Stewardship Reports
A third-party administrator sought to add value to its services. We developed a stewardship report to provide clients with a clear picture of how providers are performing and of their plan health.
Staying on top of rapidly changing developments

Spence v. American Airlines: Expanding the Playing Field for Fiduciary Liability?
A federal court in Texas has ruled that American Airlines breached its duty of loyalty under ERISA by failing to respond to activities undertaken by a plan investment manager (BlackRock) supporting ESG initiatives. The court was unable to find a breach of prudence—rather it relied solely on the obligation of “loyalty.”

Trump 2.0: Some Predictions
As we enter 2025 there is much speculation about the policies the Trump administration (“Trump 2.0”) will pursue. This blog discusses what might occur under the incoming administration with respect to retirement plans and how the incoming administration could shape the retirement plan landscape.

New Front on Fiduciary Litigation?
As employers have become more attuned to their fiduciary responsibilities, plaintiffs’ attorneys have had to dig deeper to find a basis for suing plan sponsors. Two recent court decisions (Hutchins v. HP Inc and Perez-Cruet v. Qualcomm Inc) reflect diametrically opposing judicial responses to the same new litigation strategy, The Claims Both Hutchins and Perez-Cruet […]