New Keane Qualified Plan Solutions Business Unit to Offer Help in Terminating 401k Plans
New Business Unit is First to Offer Comprehensive Legal, Compliance, and Administrative Support for Plan Administrators in Lengthy, Difficult Process of Terminating 401k Plans
WEST CONSHOHOCKEN, PA, October 4, 2005 -- 401k plan sponsors, administrators, and their record keepers finally have somewhere to turn for help with the thorny process of terminating 401k and other types of qualified retirement plans. The Keane Organization's new Qualified Plan Solutions business unit, built with the help of industry veteran Mark Phillips, is the first to offer comprehensive services for completing every step of the termination process, and settling every last dollar--quickly, effectively, and in full compliance with existing laws and recent U.S. Department of Labor guidelines.
Being unveiled at the upcoming Society for Professional Administrators and Record Keepers (SPARK) Forum in Palm Beach, Fla., Keane Qualified Plan Solutions include:
- Providing comprehensive legal support, including a broad range of advisory services, drafting of official actions, helpful plan amendments, and ERISA and Sarbanes-Oxley compliant participant notifications.
- Delivering notice to plan participants who are currently, or were previously, employed by the company, to explain their distribution options, detail the process, and layout a timeline.
- Conducting government-mandated 'diligent searches' in an attempt to find all outstanding participants in order to distribute their funds.
- Properly managing the distribution of funds for missing participants who cannot be found through the diligent search. This can include opening IRA rollover accounts, setting up federally-insured bank accounts, or reporting the account balances to the government as unclaimed property.
Keane's Qualified Plan Solutions comes on the heels of extensive market research conducted with leading 401k record keepers, which focused on companies with 500 employees or less. The research found that as many as 20,000 companies of this size terminate their 401k plans every year, either because of business failure, business sale, or because the plan has failed to live up to sponsor expectations. The research also shows that because the termination process is so complex, many plans take more than one year to terminate, and up to 25 percent can take two years or more. These timeframes create financial hardships for plan sponsors, their record keepers, and plan participants who cannot access their account during the termination process.
The Keane Qualified Plan Solutions unit aims to reduce that timeframe to produce cost savings for all parties and accelerate the distribution of plan assets to eligible plan participants, and to ensure compliance standards are met. "Our services help companies eliminate months, even years of work from the complicated and confusing termination process," says Doug Johnson, President of The Keane Organization, Inc. "And that means participants will receive their funds earlier, plan administrators can focus on more pressing HR matters within their expertise, and record keepers can focus on their active clients. Simply put, an easier, faster, less expensive termination process benefits everyone involved."
Richard McDonald knows how difficult the termination process can be. As treasurer of a company that ended its plan years before he joined the firm, he inherited the headache of managing the account balances of nearly 600 former employees who had moved on without ever rolling over their 401k accounts into new plans. Now years later, McDonald is responsible for a 401k plan comprised entirely of former employees he can't find.
"Thank goodness for Keane's Qualified Plan Solutions," says McDonald. "There are thousands of plan administrators out there like me, who want to give participants their money, but don't have the resources to track them all down. Keane can navigate the bureaucracies, manage the process, keep us in compliance with regulators, and help us finally terminate the plan knowing we've done everything we can for its members."
Mark Phillips agrees. "Efficiently terminating qualified retirement plans is a niche within the retirement services industry that's long been waiting to be filled," he says. "Only Keane has the unique resources and background to help companies through this painful process quickly, easily and cost effectively."
About The Keane Organization
Based in suburban Philadelphia, The Keane Organization, Inc. is a leading provider of compliance and risk management solutions to Fortune 1000 corporations, financial institutions, and mutual funds. What sets us apart is our ability to help clients manage state and federal compliance challenges in a way that builds economic value with customers and preserves key relationships with investors, employees, and vendors. This 'Beyond Compliance' approach allows executives to proactively address regulatory issues and fiduciary responsibilities with programs that measurably increase revenues. For more information about Keane, please contact Jason at 610-642-8253 or Jason@GregoryFCA.com, or visit us at www.KeaneCo.com.
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