Many organizations establish retirement plans with the best intentions but lack dedicated resources to monitor plan design, investment performance, and fee competitiveness. Internal fiduciaries often have significant operational responsibilities, leaving limited time for ongoing oversight. Wood River Investment Consulting fills this gap by delivering disciplined, unbiased evaluation and guidance to help plan sponsors meet their fiduciary obligations and ensure their plans remain aligned with industry best practices.
Wood River Investment Consulting provides fiduciary institutional investment consulting to retirement plans ranging from $10 million to over $500 million. As an independent, fee‑only advisor, we offer objective oversight free from commissions, 12b‑1 fees, or compensation from recordkeepers or investment providers.
That is where Wood River Investment Consulting comes in:
What we do
Philosophy & Approach to Employee Retirement Plan
Work with Plan Sponsor to determine best approach for plan sponsor to provide a meaningful vehicle for employees to save for retirement
Review Plan Design and discuss plan features such as matching, auto enroll, auto escalate, loans
Review current investments, number of options available, investment pricing and product structure, target date portfolio composition and philosophy, income solutions
Review/Design Investment Policy Statement:
Review the current Investment Policy Statement to ensure that it meets the current goals and objectives of the Plan Sponsor and is designed to provide a road map that ensures a clear and actionable approach to reviewing and replacing investment managers
Investment Policy Statement is a framework that defines how the plan sponsor is to review and evaluate the underlying investment options available to plan participants. The investment policy statement outlines the performance benchmarks and thresholds from which the investment committee is to determine investment manager performance. The investment policy statement also outlines the process to be followed by the investment committee when managers underperform and the approach to evaluate new investment managers for the plan
Review & evaluate current investment strategies
Many retirement savings plans have too many investment options available to plan participants and the investment strategies can be very similar in approach and philosophy. In addition, investment options might seem like a kaleidoscope of offerings that were added at various times to meet participant demands or current market trends
Review the pricing and structure of the current investment portfolios
Plan sponsors have an opportunity today to choose a variety of pricing and portfolio structures for their retirement plan investment options which can reduce plan expense and in turn provide greater returns for plan participants. We will review the pricing and structure of the investment options and discuss with the investment committee if they align with the Plan Sponsor goals and are appropriate for the Plan Participants
Review performance relative to benchmark & peers
As part of determining the proper number, strategy & structure of the plan investment options we will evaluate the performance of the current investment portfolios. It is important to determine if the current investment options available to plan participants are meeting the challenges of the market and providing the performance necessary to outperform their benchmark and peers over the long term
Develop a process to address any recommendations for change
Once the performance review is complete, we will make portfolio recommendations to watch, keep, add or replace the current investment options. The recommendations will complement the Investment Policy Statement and guidelines which will enable clear ongoing monitoring of the participant investment options
Conduct Regular Plan Review Meetings
We schedule regular plan review meetings to discuss the current economic environment, trends in plan design, policies that may affect the Plan Sponsor, investment performance of the options available to Plan Participants and any additional investment options for consideration