Retirement Plan Consulting

Wood River Investment Consulting offers Institutional Investment Consulting, acting in a fiduciary capacity, to businesses with plans as large as $500 million as well as to plans which may be small or midsized plans in the range of $10 million to $100 million.  It is very important for companies to have outside oversight of their retirement plan from a neutral party who is not collecting commissions or 12(b)1 fees or an agent for the company providing the plan record keeping.  


All too often I see businesses generous enough to provide a retirement plan for their employee’s retirement savings, but not have any outside consultant to monitor the plan’s design, investment performance, pricing of the investments or the pricing of the record keeping.  Often, the plan is set up initially to meet the company’s needs but afterwards there is little or no oversight or monitoring.  Quite often the people in place who have fiduciary responsibility for the plan are too busy with their day-to-day responsibilities to take time to monitor and review the Plan.


That is where Wood River Investment Consulting comes in:  


What We Do


Philosophy and 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 and 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 and Peers                                 
As part of determining the proper number, strategy and 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.