Making and selling pizza in volume is actually a complex process consisting of hundreds of small decisions that go into delivering a consistent, high quality product at a competitive cost. Think of the dough, sauce, cheese, toppings, cooking time and temperature just to name a few. All of these are thought through in advance and made part of a repeatable, consistent process. Each finished product recognizable to the pizza producer’s brand and available anywhere in the country.
A 401(k) plan is actually a combination of hundreds of processing decisions made by the recordkeeper. At Employee Fiduciary, we strive for an efficient, low-cost 401(k) plan to offer to our clients. We have thought through each seemingly simple process to get as much efficiency and consistency of outcome as possible. If we do our job right, our clients have an excellent experience with us at a very low cost.
Example: We process thousands of payroll contributions each month and each contribution has several “moving parts.” We put together payroll data, client bank account information and participant investment instructions. We use a strict set of internal procedures to get the work done accurately and efficiently. These procedures in turn drive our client requirements for working with us.
Package these procedures with about a hundred others, and you get a product called a 401(k) plan. Check out our 401(k) help center – retirement plans can be extremely complex.
Low cost is a key part of our brand. Because our costs are low, procedural efficiency and inside-the-box thinking are critical to executing our business model. We avoid exceptions - obsessively. We tend to attract a number of Vanguard small business clients. The efficient and frugal spirit of the “Bogleheads” is a similar to our approach to retirement plans.
Like Papa Murphy’s in the take and bake niche, we will never appeal to every 401(k) plan sponsor – we expected that when we built the company. We do, however, expect to appeal to those plan sponsors who value choice and low cost. Our clients appreciate the value in our approach.