Tree Of Life Appoints NYLIM to Service $100 Million 401k Plan
WESTWOOD, MA, December 11, 2006 -- The Retirement Plan Services division of New York Life Investment Management LLC (NYLIM), announced today that Tree of Life, Inc. has appointed the retirement plan provider to provide bundled services for its $100 million 401k plan.
Tree of Life, based in St. Augustine, Florida, is a leading distributor and marketer of organic and all natural food brands including some of the best-known organic brands nationwide.
"We wanted a recordkeeper to partner with us and to be tuned in and responsive to our needs," said Keith Morrison, Director, Compensation and Benefits at Tree of Life. "We walked out of our finals meeting with NYLIM knowing this was their niche and that they’d take good care of our plan. The NYLIM team was focused, flexible and very engaged. The plan’s conversion was by far the smoothest I’ve ever been through," he said.
As part of its conversion to NYLIM, Tree of Life embarked on a unique strategy to help its participants diversify their assets starting at conversion. The plan sponsor had identified that its participants were not properly diversified. By moving to the target-date funds at conversion, Tree of Life immediately improved participants’ diversification helping put them on the right investment path to meet individual retirement income goals. Additionally, the sponsor created a diversified core investment lineup to meet the needs of those participants electing to self-direct their investments.
"Clearly, the mapping strategy has worked well given that 90 percent of the assets that were mapped to AllianceBernstein target-date funds are still in those funds now," said Marc Zimmerman, Director, Qualified Plans at Mahoney & Associates. Mahoney & Associates, with offices in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and Springfield, Massachusetts, assisted Tree of Life in evaluating and selecting NYLIM Retirement Plan Services as the plan’s new administrator as well as developing its unique fund mapping strategy.
Tree of Life also intends to add On Target, NYLIM Retirement Plan Services’ proprietary managed account program, to its line-up starting at the end of 2006.
In addition to the AllianceBernstein target-date Retirement Strategy funds, the plan invested in 15 funds from well-known fund families, spanning asset classes and the equity market cap spectrum.
About Tree of Life, Inc.
Tree of Life, Inc. is the world’s leading marketer and distributor of natural and specialty foods, serving customers throughout the United States and Canada. Tree of Life, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Wessanen NV based in the Netherlands. The parent company, Wessanen, has over two centuries of experience in the food industry. Other North American operations include Liberty Richter and the American Beverage Corporation.
About NYLIM Retirement Plan Services
NYLIM Retirement Plan Services oversees more than 2,100 comprehensive defined contribution, defined benefit and deferred compensation plans as of October 31, 2006. With offices in Westwood, Massachusetts, and Parsippany, New Jersey, NYLIM Retirement Plan Services administers retirement programs for small, medium and large companies, multi-employer plans, and individuals throughout the United States, and is widely recognized for its leadership in bundled defined contribution and bundled defined benefit plans.
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