Benchmark My Plan

Confirm your current offering is competitive, at no cost

We have successfully benchmarked over 3,000 plans. In collaboration with local retirement plan fiduciaries, the ERISA Summit® is pleased to provide our members with complimentary plan benchmarking. This service delivers transparent assessments of your plan's setup, operation, investments, and fees, all from a fiduciary viewpoint. By leveraging this service, you can ensure your offerings remain competitive, providing significant advantages to our members.
Benchmark My Plan

  • Review Plan Fees

    Complimentary

  • Investments Review

    against peer groups

  • 3(16) Tasks

    to reduce liability

  • Personal Review

    with a fiduciary

Regina - Executive Director

“The benchmarking process through the ERISA Summit was beyond valuable. The process was straightforward, taking less than 15 minutes of my time, yet the insights gained were invaluable. I received a detailed report that highlighted areas for improvement and strengths, empowering us with the knowledge to make informed decisions. This quick yet thorough approach to benchmarking has set a new standard for how we evaluate and enhance our plan.”

Why is benchmarking important?

Benchmarking your company’s 401(k) or 403(b) plan entails a detailed review of your retirement program. This evaluation is crucial for fully understanding the fees involved with your plan and their rationale. It ensures that you are offering a significant employee benefit. This review helps verify that your plan continues to meet both your company’s and its participants’ needs effectively. Moreover, this process produces the documentation needed by the Department of Labor to confirm the reasonableness of your plan fees.

It is important to recognize that with the establishment of a plan comes the role of a plan sponsor. After the plan is in place, it is essential to conduct regular maintenance to uphold its effectiveness and compliance. This routine maintenance is known as benchmarking.

View DOL Fee Guide

ERISA Summit® Benchmarking Process

Streamline and enhance your 401(k)/403(b) plan with our efficient benchmarking services. In today’s fast-changing market, it’s essential to know how your plan compares. Our service provides clear insights into how your plan performs against peers and ensures your fees and investments deliver top value.

Our thorough benchmarking process offers solid proof of your commitment to responsible investment practices, helping you make informed strategic decisions. This ensures your plan is optimally structured for your employees’ financial well-being.

Our refined process delivers real-time market comparisons and detailed data quickly and effectively, simplifying access to crucial benchmarking information. Our tools also help you clearly communicate the importance of responsible investing to your team, supporting your role as a diligent fiduciary.

We’re ready to assist you in fulfilling this vital part of your fiduciary responsibilities with minimal time required from you. Let us help you improve your 401(k)/403(b) strategy today!

Facts about the process

• Time commitment of under one hour start to finish

• No cost or commitment for the benchmarking results

• Benchmarking comes with a free fiduciary guide and video training series

• The process is conducted by a retirement plan fiduciary

Step 1: Gather Information

We will connect you with a retirement plan fiduciary who will conduct a brief interview to understand how the plan is operating today. They will also gather a few plan-level documents for their analysis.

Step 2: Schedule a Meeting

The fiduciary will begin reviewing your plan, a process that typically takes about a week. During the interview call, they will schedule another call 7-10 days after receiving your plan information to present their findings.

Step 3: Review Findings

We exclusively partner with fiduciary advisors dedicated to assisting plan sponsors in gaining a better understanding of their plan. The review meeting will be consultative and serve one of two purposes: either confirming that your current plan aligns with your goals or identifying areas of opportunity for plan improvement. Our aim is to ensure that your retirement plan meets your objectives and provides the best possible benefits to you and your employees.

Bonus: Administrative Audit

We provide a bonus review through an all-encompassing administrative audit. This procedure can be incorporated into the benchmarking review at your discretion. The fiduciary consultant will ask 25 questions regarding your current plan administration practices, aiming to identify the most significant liabilities within your plan operations. The resulting report will outline both the discoveries made and recommendations to mitigate your 3(16) administrative risk exposure.

Mellisa P.
We recently used ERISA Summit Benchmark for our annual plan review and were impressed with the simplicity of their process and the excellence of the final report. Their streamlined approach made the entire process hassle-free, and the detailed final report became an invaluable part of our fiduciary files. It provided clear, actionable insights that are critical for maintaining compliance and enhancing our plan's performance. We look forward to continuing our annual reviews with them and highly recommend their services to other fiduciaries.
Mellisa P.

Review Plan Fees

Review Investments

Review The Impact

Benefits of Benchmarking

Save Money

Benchmarking offers a range of benefits, primarily ensuring that a retirement plan remains competitive and efficient. By regularly comparing your plan against those of similar organizations, you can identify areas for improvement in performance, fees, and service offerings. This proactive approach can help enhance plan features, manage costs more effectively, and ultimately increase the plan’s value to participants. Benchmarking also aids in compliance, helping ensure that the plan adheres to industry standards and regulations, which is crucial for maintaining trust and integrity.

Regarding the management of retirement plan fees, there is a wide array of costs associated with administering a plan. Regularly reviewing these fees and the amounts paid is crucial for the financial stewardship of your employee benefits. Identifying opportunities to reduce costs can result in significant savings, allowing a greater portion of funds to be invested toward your employees’ future retirement.

Document Compliance

As the plan sponsor, you hold the essential duty of ensuring that your company’s retirement plan administration complies with legal standards. Conducting an annual comprehensive review of your company’s benefit plan is a critical practice. This systematic evaluation not only ensures adherence to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) but also facilitates ongoing compliance. Benchmarking your plan provides a robust framework for this review, giving you confidence and peace of mind about your legal compliance. Furthermore, documenting this compliance in your fiduciary vault can significantly benefit your organization. It serves as a vital record of due diligence, enhances transparency, and supports audits or legal inquiries, ultimately reinforcing the integrity of your fiduciary management.

Maximize Participant Outcomes

Remembering the initial motivations for establishing your company’s retirement plan is essential, as it underscores the importance of conducting regular reviews to ensure it continues to offer outstanding benefits to your employees. Such assessments are invaluable not only for maintaining compliance and alignment with your goals but also for enhancing employee perception and appreciation of their benefits. This, in turn, can lead to increased morale, productivity, and retention. Additionally, benchmarking your plan plays a crucial role in maximizing participant outcomes by identifying opportunities to lower plan fees and offer the best investment options. Lowering costs and optimizing investment selections directly benefit employees by improving the potential growth of their retirement savings, thereby reinforcing the value and effectiveness of the plan.

Interested in benchmarking your plan?

At the ERISA Summit, we have built strong connections with a wide network of fiduciary advisors, all experts in evaluating retirement plans. Our aim is to ensure you get the necessary support for both benchmarking and planning your next steps based on the assessment results. Are you ready for a free benchmarking of your plan? Our seasoned professionals are ready to meet with you at your earliest convenience.

Interested in benchmarking your plan?

At the ERISA Summit, we have built strong connections with a wide network of fiduciary advisors, all experts in evaluating retirement plans. Our aim is to ensure you get the necessary support for both benchmarking and planning your next steps based on the assessment results. Are you ready for a free benchmarking of your plan? Our seasoned professionals are ready to meet with you at your earliest convenience.