What are some good low-cost recordkeepers outside of the well-known brands?

Great West and Mass Mutual do an excellent job with assets beginning as low as $500,000. As you get North of that number, we like Putnam and Diversified. Putnam uses GW's platform, along with other insitutional folks.

Depending on where you are located, I would check out Alliance Benefit Group. We utilize them quite a bit as a TPA/recordkeeper. They are completely open architechture, so you will not have the same cost structures as the bundled providers previously mentioned.

1 Comment   |  Flag   |  Mar 09, 2012 from East Dundee, IL

Edward Smith, ChFC, CRPS, AIF

I have found Employee Fiduciary to be the lowest cost (all in) for small plans.

3 likes | 

Flag |  Mar 09, 2012 near Loveland, OH

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Mel this is a difficult question to ask in general terms. There are many experience and qualified RK/TPAs. It depends on your specific needs. There are many factors to take into account. Cost, Plan design, technological needs and wants. you should consider working with an independent qualified advisor to help assist you in the process. Cost is important but cannot be the only factor.

Hi Mel, The best recordkeepers for your company plan will definitely depend upon the size of your plan in terms of assets and employees. Fidelity and Vanguard are THE low cost providers for larger plans (> $20M). For smaller plans, there is T. Rowe Price, Employee Fiduciary and a number of others. If you want to tell us more about your plan perhaps the community here can offer additional suggestions.

Mel I have to agree with all the gentlmen that have answer before me. It depends on your specific situation. The best low cost company that I have found is Employee Fiduciary for plans with under 60 employees. Employee Fiduciary acts as a record keeper and an administrator. A lot of providers will charge you an annual fee, a per employee fee and some will even charge an additional asset based fee. You have to be careful. Employee Fiduciary will charge $35 per employee per year with a $1,500 minimum. But that includes everything except a very small asset based fee if your plan assets are over 1 million and whatever your Investment advisor charges for advice to the plan if you utilize one. I use EF as the administrator on my smaller plans and after charging my fee (advisory & fiduciary), the mutual fund annual operating cost and the record keeping and administrative fee my clients pay right at 1% per year! I hope that helps.

Do you want to go with a "bundled" approcah where the investment manager also serves as the recordkeeper and possibly plan administrator? Or would you prefer to seperate those functions?