Corporate Retirement Plan Services · Employers & Plan Sponsors
Retirement plan advisory for organizations that want more.
MCF advises 401(k), 403(b) and 457 plans, pensions and cash balance plans: investment menus, fees benchmarked in writing, committee governance and participant education, as your 3(21) or 3(38) fiduciary.
Fees, menu, governance and outcomes, in writing, whether or not you hire us.
The plan review
- Fees: benchmarked against plans your size
- Investment menu: reviewed fund by fund
- Governance: documents and process checked
- Participant outcomes: measured, not assumed
Delivered in writing, whether or not you hire us.
What sponsors carry
You carry the plan alongside a full-time job.
If you sit on the committee or signed the plan documents, you’re a fiduciary under ERISA. The defense is a prudent process: careful decisions, documented, made with help that shares the standard.
MCF advises defined contribution and defined benefit plans, helping sponsors turn the concerns at right into work the committee can review and defend.
Plan sponsor concerns
- Complying with retirement plan regulations
- Adhering to fiduciary responsibilities
- Paying reasonable fees
- Offering competitive funds
- Supporting participants in preparing for retirement in alignment with plan design and retirement eligibility provisions
Fiduciary steps
Have you taken the necessary steps?
These seven prudent actions organize our work with plan committees. Together they connect governance, investments, fees and plan design in one documented process.
Choose a step to jump to the relevant part of the overview.
Governance and fiduciary compliance
A clear committee structure. A current fiduciary record.
The named fiduciary remains accountable for the plan. We help formalize delegation to the retirement plan committee, educate its members and maintain the documents that show how decisions were made.
Plan governance
The documents that make delegation real
- Board Resolution
- Committee Member Acceptances
- Committee Charter
- Investment Policy Statement
- Quarterly Monitoring Reports
- Meeting Minutes
- Virtual Fiduciary File
The Fiduciary Fitness Program
Identify, educate and document
Identify
A Fiduciary Diagnostic on your plan identifies any existing gaps pertaining to your committee’s fiduciary responsibilities.
Educate
Fiduciary Education Modules provide the resources to inform and educate committee members regarding ERISA’s fiduciary requirements.
Document
The Diagnostic is reviewed and updated on a regular basis to identify upcoming plan management responsibilities and to document when required tasks are completed.
Fiduciary levels
Who signs the investment decisions?
3(21): we advise, you decide
MCF provides the research, monitoring and documentation; your committee keeps the final vote.
3(38): we decide, and carry it
MCF takes discretion over the investment menu and the fiduciary liability that comes with those decisions.
Read the plain-English explainerInvestment oversight and fee benchmarking
The menu, the default and the fees—reviewed in writing.
Investment due diligence, target date fund selection and provider benchmarking each require a repeatable process. We bring the analysis together for the committee’s file.
Investment due diligence
Every fund scored pass or fail
The proprietary MCF Scorecard applies institutional measurement techniques and a 10-point process to every fund on the menu, supporting watch-list and replacement decisions with a documented record.
Target date fund selection
A default chosen for this plan
Plan objectives, workforce demographics and participant behavior inform a best-fit risk posture. We then compare the quality, composition and fees of the target date funds that fit.
Recordkeeper and advisor fees
Benchmarked against live bids
A live-bid process every three to five years—or sooner when plan characteristics change—compares more than 500 recordkeeping data points. The same reasonableness standard applies to the advisor’s fee, including ours.
MCF’s scoring framework is an internal evaluation tool and does not represent an objective measure of investment skill. Historical scores are not predictive of future results.
Plan design and defined benefit consulting
Design the plan around the behavior and obligations that matter.
Defined contribution · PLANavigator
Turn participant inertia to the plan’s advantage.
PLANavigator is MCF’s plan-design process for evaluating automatic enrollment, automatic escalation and intentional defaults—features designed to make saving easier than opting out or undersaving.
- Automatic enrollment
- Automatic escalation
- Intentional defaults
Defined benefit consulting
Pension and cash balance plans, managed against what they owe.
We review plan goals, assets, liabilities and funded status so the investment approach remains appropriate. Services can include plan design, Investment Policy Statement construction, dynamic asset allocation, manager due diligence, 3(38) investment management and provider benchmarking.
When reducing pension risk is the goal, we also help sponsors evaluate liability-driven investing and lump-sum or annuity options in light of the plan and the organization’s balance sheet.
For your participants
The Pre-Retiree Academy
An eight-week education series for participants 55 and over in MCF-advised plans. Each week releases webinars, articles, worksheets and guides by email and on the Academy page, self-paced and virtual, and the materials stay available all year. Led by Hunter Nighbert, Financial Advisor & Retirement Planning Specialist.
About the AcademyEight weeks · released weekly · virtual
Topics this year include
- Charting your course through retirement
- Retirement budgeting and draw-down strategies
- Understanding your Social Security benefits
- Tax strategies for retirement income
- Life insurance, Medicare and estate planning essentials
Sent to eligible participants in MCF-advised plans each year. Recordings and materials stay in the content library until the next year’s program.
Financial wellness programs
Near-term money questions, answered before they become long-term ones.
Help employees navigate near-term financial considerations so they are better positioned to make informed long-term financial decisions.
Insights
Plan Sponsor Insights
Services are tailored to each client’s circumstances and engagement. Not all services described are provided to every client.
Questions
What plan sponsors ask us
What does a plan review include?
Fees benchmarked against plans your size, the investment menu, plan documents and governance, and participant outcomes, delivered in writing, whether or not you hire us.
What's the difference between 3(21) and 3(38)?
Who signs the decisions. As a 3(21) fiduciary we advise and your committee decides; as a 3(38) we take discretion over the investment menu and the liability that comes with it. Our plain-English explainer covers when each fits.
What is the Fiduciary Fitness Program?
A Fiduciary Diagnostic that identifies gaps in your committee's fiduciary responsibilities, twenty education modules that cover what ERISA asks of committee members, and a regularly updated record that documents when required tasks are completed.
Do you advise both defined contribution and defined benefit plans?
Yes: 401(k), 403(b) and 457 plans on the DC side, and pension and cash balance plans on the DB side. They're distinct offerings with the same fiduciary standard.
Do you work with our recordkeeper or replace them?
We're independent of recordkeepers. We benchmark them with a live-bid process and help you negotiate, whoever wins.
What do you offer our employees?
Financial wellness programs on near-term topics such as budgeting, debt and emergency funds, participant education, and the Pre-Retiree Academy, a virtual eight-week education series for participants 55 and over in MCF-advised plans.
How do you charge?
A flat or asset-based fee, stated plainly in the agreement and benchmarked so your committee can document that it's reasonable, the same standard we hold your other providers to.
Let’s talk about your plan.
MCF’s retirement plan practice is built for organizations where leadership wants an advisor who treats the retirement plan like the employee benefit it is. If that’s your organization, contact us.