The Ameritas Retirement Collective
The Ameritas Retirement Collective is an innovative 401(k) strategy in a multiple employer plan. This program allows multiple business owners to offer a retirement plan to employees while reducing the administrative burden, mitigating and transferring fiduciary risks, and managing costs. The Retirement Collective is personalized for employer organizations, affiliated employer groups and sole proprietors.
The Business Council of New York State, Inc., members are encouraged to consider the Ameritas Retirement Collective for your retirement plan needs. Ameritas invests in the technology to smoothly handle multiple employer plans. The backbone of this technology was designed for our largest state and municipalities clients. These client relationships alone consist of 216+ plans and separate payrolls with $3.3B in growing assets and over 44,000+ participants as of December 31, 2021. We built the systems and infrastructure necessary to competently administer plans in multiple employer arrangements.
Key Benefits
Why join a pooled plan?
Easy, compliant and cost effective
As a Business Council of New York (BCNYS) member, you have full access to the Retirement Collective. It’s an easy, compliant and cost-competitive strategy that reduces administrative burdens, fiduciary responsibilities and liabilities for plan sponsors. This custom, pre-packaged retirement plan strategy provides each plan sponsor with a separate plan.
Benefits to employers / sponsors
Here are the top five benefits for the employer / sponsor
It’s easy to administer: The Retirement Collective performs 95% of the administrative tasks by becoming the retirement department support team. You don’t have to be a 401(k) expert.
It’s compliant: The Retirement Collective is the 401(k) support staff, so it stays in compliance and you don’t get fined or penalized.
It minimizes fiduciary liability: The Retirement Collective allows plan sponsors to shift certain fiduciary duties by providing fiduciary support to mitigate defined legal obligations and responsibilities.
It’s cost competitive: Because the Retirement Collective is built on an aggregated model, you gain the advantages of economies of scale in pricing, so you don’t overpay.
We teamed with well-known providers: Ameritas teamed with Mesirow Financial for 3(38) investment fiduciary services and The Retirement Advantage (TRA) for 3(16) plan administration fiduciary services. We also offer optional audit services with Templeton & Company. Together, we have a team that provides end-to-end retirement plan oversight.
Among companies that do not offer a 401(k) or similar plan, 42% say they are likely to begin sponsoring a plan in the next two years.
The most frequently cited reasons companies aren’t planning to offer a plan:
60%
Company is not big enough
37%
Concerns about cost
20%
Employees are not interested
There may be cause for optimism, as 29% of those not likely to offer a plan say that they would consider joining a multiple employer plan offered by a reputable vendor who handles many of the fiduciary and administrative duties at a reasonable cost.**
** Pre-Pandemic: U.S. Employer Benefits and Business Practices. 20th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey. December 2020.
Benefits to employees / participants
Top four benefits for the employee / participant
Participant website: Our secure online portal gives plan participants the ability to see their retirement path. Capabilities range from checking their investment performance to estimating how much they will have at retirement.
Easy enrollment: We offer interactive, online enrollment with relevant, bite-sized modules of information employees can access when and where it works best for them.
Participant resources: Participants have access to benefit statements, fee disclosure documents, quarterly newsletters and more.
Employee education: Employees can learn more with engaging videos that address timely topics such as plan specific provisions, how much to save and asset allocation.
Investments
With the Retirement Collective, Mesirow Financial is the 3(38) investment fiduciary and has taken the responsibility for selecting a fund line-up. As part of the Retirement Collective, Mesirow will review and monitor these investments on a quarterly basis and make changes, when necessary, in order to offer your participants a compliant, quality investment line-up. This is another example of how the Retirement Collective benefits you and your employees.
Fiduciary services
Mesirow is the 3(38) investment fiduciary. They handle the investment selection and monitoring, which significantly eases the burden and may also help protect your plan sponsors from certain legal claims. While you cannot entirely delegate investment fiduciary responsibility, the Retirement Collective offers a significant layer of ERISA liability protection.
Plan services
Every plan comes with a core team of experienced, dedicated professionals who provide guidance and support. They assist with compliance as well as calculating and allocating contributions and transfers. They also provide all the necessary documentation to help you with the administration of loans and distributions for the plan’s participants. This relationship-based service model gives you more time to focus on what’s important.
Proposal
Are you ready to get serious about the Ameritas Retirement Collective? Complete the form on this site we’ll create a custom proposal for you.
About the Program
A full team of support
Ameritas joined forces with BCNYS to offer the Ameritas Retirement Collective. It’s an easy, compliant and cost-competitive strategy that reduces administrative burdens, fiduciary responsibilities and liabilities for plan sponsors.
Recordkeeping services
Ameritas is in the business of fulfilling life. We offer competitive insurance, employee benefits and financial products and services to customers nationwide. Founded in 1887 with over 60 years in the retirement plans marketplace, Ameritas remains committed to building enduring relationships. Our heritage as a mutual-based organization means we always put customers first. The way we do business ensures we’ll be here when you need us. You can count on us to keep our promises*.
*See our financial strength ratings.
3(16) fiduciary services and plan administrator
TRA serves as a delegated 3(16) plan administrator, providing 3(16) fiduciary services — known as Plan Administration Relief Services (PARS) — and relieving the business owner or sponsor of many of the day-to-day administrative burdens associated with sponsoring a plan. TRA is a national third-party administrator (TPA) that specializes in administration, consultation, and compliance of retirement plans for businesses nationwide. TRA is a trusted retirement plan administrator that you can count on.
3(38) investment fiduciary
Mesirow Financial is an independent, employee-owned financial services firm founded in 1937. Headquartered in Chicago, with locations around the world, we serve clients through a personal, custom approach to reaching financial goals and acting as a force for social good. With capabilities spanning Global Investment Management, Capital Markets & Investment Banking, and Advisory Services, we invest in what matters: our clients, our communities and our culture.
Ameritas partners with Mesirow’s Fiduciary Solutions team, are an independent, third-party investment consultant. They provide robust asset allocation strategies and manager selection services to financial institutions including retirement plan recordkeepers, broker dealers, insurance companies and asset managers. Founded in 2006, the team includes PhD and CFA charterholders and is highly skilled at developing customized solutions to meet the needs of their diverse customer base.
Audit Services
Templeton & Company offers optional audit services that may potentially reduce the cost of the annual audit for plans requiring an audit.
About Ameritas
We deliver on our promises
Ameritas offers insurance, financial services and employee benefits, but we deliver so much more. It’s our mission to help individuals, families and businesses plan for whatever life brings.
You get our promise to be there when you need us. We’ve been keeping that promise for over 130 years, and it’s backed by our financial strength and structure as a mutual-based organization. Our commitment to long-term sustainable growth and protecting the resources in our care is reflected in our consistently strong financial ratings from Standard & Poor’s and AM Best.*
*Standard & Poor’s: A+ (Strong) for insurer financial strength. This is the fifth highest of Standard & Poor’s 21 ratings assigned. AM Best: A (Excellent) for insurer financial strength. This is the third highest of AM Best’s 13 ratings assigned.
Retirement plans
The Ameritas retirement plans division delivers full-service recordkeeping, administration and investment strategy programs. We focus on creating a flexible plan design model that fits all industry segments, business sizes and plan types. We’re here to help sponsoring employers create a retirement plan program that works for all employees’ across the life stages of saving. Ameritas is proud to form a Retirement Collective with BCNYS that extends another choice in the multiple employer plans. Our fast growth in the pooled plan industry is fueled by four key advantages: expertise, flexibility, specific knowledge and technology. Jim Kais, senior vice president of Ameritas retirement plans, is an expert on multiple employer plans. Jim is a national speaker on the topic and has testified in front of Congress twice.
As a specialized provider in the employer aggregation retirement plan marketplace, we’re large enough to provide the stability, technology and resources required to serve multi-employer programs of all sizes. We’re also small enough to be nimble, responsive and provide services tailored to specific plan requirements.
Ameritas can provide the customized strategies that will help benefit all stakeholders for years to come.
Getting Started
Ameritas prides itself on a timely and smooth on-boarding experience for your retirement plan. A designated implementation consultant will guide and help you and your plan sponsors through the steps to get started.
To hear more about the program or for answers to your questions, contact Ameritas retirement plans at 800-923-2732 or rpsales@ameritas.com.
