Diana Bernstein, CFO

Diana wears many financial hats and needs a “retirement plan team” to help her create a plan management process she can count on that helps ensure value for the fees paid while addressing her targeted plan goals.

Company Overview

Industry/sector: wholesale distribution/medical and surgical supplies

Number of employees: 950

Plan Assets: $91 million

Diana Bernstein is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for a large wholesale medical and surgical supply company headquartered in Detroit, MI with 950 employees located across nine distribution centers nationwide. Like many CFOs, Diana has many responsibilities in addition to providing oversight for the company’s large retirement plan and investment committee. As such, she is keenly aware of and, like many, struggles to remain on top of today’s increasingly complex and changing retirement plan landscape, and the growing number of Department of Labor (DOL) and the IRS rules in place.

Diana wants an outside team of advisors who are directly accountable to her and can function as an extension of her internal retirement plan department. Her specific goals include:

1. Lessening her burden in regard to managing the company retirement plan
2. Proactively evaluating and recommending policy changes to 1) lower the plan committee’s fiduciary exposure and 2) delegate as much fiduciary responsibility as possible
3. Creating a methodical and prudent investment process that meets the needs of the do-it-yourself participant as well as participants who wish to delegate investment selection and day-to-day investment management responsibilities to an advisor
4. Help the company’s employees better utilize the retirement program as part of their personal financial planning

After evaluation of the plan and the organization’s management process, 401(k) Prosperity^TM recommended the following actions:

1. Change investment and custodian platforms to create an open architecture investment program that would enable the plan sponsor to delegate Section 3(16) plan administrator fiduciary responsibility
2. Based on Accredited Investment Fiduciary^® (AIF^®) guidelines, 401(k) Prosperity^TM helped install and monitor a committee-centric management process inclusive of the committee’s input.
3. Create a cloud-based vault, so that plan committee members can access all plan information at any time, including the plan metrics uploaded by 401(k) Prosperity^TM throughout the year. The vault would be organized in the manner preferred by the DOL for ease and efficiency when or if the DOL audited the plan
4. Add Advisor Managed Portfolios to help address fiduciary compliance through the use of approved investments from the plan’s investment lineup and tactical management provided by the advisor. (Neither of these features is available when using Target Date or Risked Based Funds.)
5. Review and evaluate the plan’s communication and education processes. Create an Education Policy Statement (EPS) and establish goals for a communication and education program tailored to the company as a whole, and to different age-based demographics, utilizing Finance U, a suite of financial planning vignettes to help participants gain a better knowledge of how to plan for the future.