We provide a comprehensive set of resources designed to help you and your employees succeed. Then we sit on the same side of the table. And guide you through all the choices.

Investment Due Diligence Process

Market volatility makes it critical for retirement plan sponsors and fiduciaries to develop and maintain investment due diligence procedures and supporting documentation. We work with the retirement plan committee to develop and maintain the plan’s investment strategy, which is codified in an investment policy statement. This investment policy statement is used as a guide to evaluate current investment offerings, measuring them against applicable indices, the existing provider’s complete menu and the broader universe of investment options. The process is designed to confirm that a plan’s investments are diversified, well managed, and meet the objectives of the investment policy statement.

Investment Due Diligence Reports

Each investment is evaluated by more than a dozen different and objective analytical measurements, including Morningstar (and other customized data sources), one of the most robust investment analytical tools available.

Fiduciary Monitoring System

We provide investment policy development assistance and monitoring services for retirement plan sponsors. Reports are written for executives who are not necessarily financial experts. We offer both summary and detailed exception-highlighted reporting to reflect varying executive styles.

401(k) Provider Benchmarking

We have engaged the Center for Fiduciary Management to license customized versions of the Fiduciary Monitoring System (FiRM) and RFP Director Toolsets to provide investment and fee due diligence, as well as plan provider analysis and benchmarking. FiRM is a proprietary investment review toolset that utilizes data from Morningstar and other customized data sources on retirement plan providers and asset managers. FiRM allows you and your clients to search for and evaluate funds and plan fees (critical components in the due diligence process) in a streamlined manner.

Industry Reports

Comprehensive industry reports compare client plans to others in the same industry and asset size. They also compare client plans to Defined Contribution survey results across all industries. These reports are based on feedback from more than 4,900 plan sponsors across 26 different industries.

Every survey topic is covered in detail:

• Comparisons by asset class
• Comprehensive analyses of dozens of areas of plan design
• In-depth coverage of 401(k) plan design and investments, including:
  • participation rates
  • investment options
  • company match
  • company stock
  • investment advice
  • online features
  • plan costs/fees
  • advisor services

Research Library

This library includes significant articles, news items and whitepapers pertaining to the retirement plan market. Links to outside sources of retirement plan news are also available.

Fiduciary Audit Package

By serving as a plan’s investment advisor, Kidder Advisers relieves the plan sponsor from the duty of being an expert on investments. Instead, the plan sponsor becomes subject to the more modest burden of ensuring that Kidder Advisers is providing responsible advice regarding the plan’s investments. By contrast, other “retirement plan consultants” are unwilling to acknowledge their status as an investment advisor or a fiduciary to the plan.

Fiduciary Oversight

Investment Stewards wear many professional hats. And while they may spend the least amount of their working life on retirement plan issues, their fiduciary roles for the plan pose a significant amount of risk in the corporate arena. Inundated with primary job functions, finance and human resources executives lament the lack of time and tools available to fulfill their fiduciary accountabilities with high levels of confidence. This uncertainty is the main cause of their concern about their personal liability as a fiduciary.

To meet this void, we offer investment fiduciary support for plan asset management through independent guidance and monitoring.

Kidder Advisers help clients address the following fiduciary functions with confidence.

1. Demonstrate prudence through a document trail.
2. Understand the key factors around investment management decision making.
3. Adhere to the committee’s investment strategies.
4. Monitor service providers according to the new global benchmarks of fiduciary excellence.

Plan sponsors appreciate our investment fiduciary services because they’re easy to use, document decisions, help assure continuity of conduct and clarify all roles and responsibilities.