Attendees at The Plan Sponsor University (TPSU) program recently held at Rollins College, in Winter Park, Florida, exhibited leadership qualities when attending the Fiduciary Educational Program. Rollins College, Florida’s oldest post-secondary institution is independent, nonsectarian, and its founding dates to 1880. Perhaps that is why the TPSU Programs that have been hosted at Rollins College have been thought-provoking, energetic and a cradle of good ideas for retirement plan fiduciaries. The TPSU Program held at Rollins College recently was no exception.
What Makes The Rollins College TPSU Programs Stand-out?
“Retirement Plan Sponsors who attend TPSU at Rollins College have a fresh way of viewing the industry and that translates into unique thoughts when describing their own company retirement plans” said Steff Chalk, Executive Director of The Plan Sponsor University. “Attendees arrive early, they are eager to get started and in some cases they remain after the program to engage the speakers – in this case, from Voya, John Hancock, and T.Rowe Price. The entire program is filled with great ideas that emanate from the Plan Sponsor attendees.”
In a safe environment, away from regulators, consultants and auditors, plan fiduciaries exchange ideas on What is Working and What is Not Working in 401k Plans; Attendees have the opportunity to share ideas and concepts that have helped those from small professional firms to large publicly traded firms, while making a difference for plan participants.
Pitching Benefits to Non-employees
One attendee described how they uses the 401(k) Plan as a recruiting tool. The company structures every employment offer-letter to include “Upon starting with the company, you will be immediately enrolled in the company 401(k) Retirement Plan and you will receive a Company Match of 5% of your annual compensation.”
Another example of forward-thinking at the Rollins College TPSU Program was a simple statement made by an attendee, when asked What is working in 401k Plans? The response of the day was: “We have a one!” The attendee then shared stories of two plan participants who were positioned to retire from her employer’s company based solely on the assets each had accumulated in their 401(k) Plan.
Something is working in 401(k) Plans – as evidenced by the statistics recently released by the Investment Company Institute. The 401(k) Plan – sometimes described as a ‘failed experiment’ has now garnered over $5 Trillion. It remains the most successful self-funded retirement system on the Planet. Not bad for a failure!
