Can anyone tell me if there is benchmarking data out there for me to compare fees/expense of a DB plan to the marketplace. I am trying to determine if the actuarial fees, recordkeeping, reporting and investment expenses are competitive. Thanks.

I'm not sure there is a standard, and fees may vary in defferent regions of the country. Here is what we charge:

Base Fee...........................................$1,300
Per Participant.......................................$45
Per hr. Trust Accounting........................$100
Per hr. Non discrim testing.....................$100
Per Partic distribution............................$110
Per Plan amendment..............................$100
Per Participant Loan...............................$100

Plan Document (one time fee)..............$1,050

The above generally includes everything other than QDRO's and plan termination fees. We do not sell investments.

We find most other firms in our area have comparable fees with some higher and some lower.

Dougsbpc:

Are you sure that there are no anti-trust concerns with posting your company's schedue of fees on a public forum? (I honestly don't know the answer to that question, but I would be leary about posting such information.)

I would think that the problem could occur in providing the information through means other than a public forum. Many firms, such as my own, post their fees on their websites, so they are public information.

I know of no such benchmarks of DB fees. However the fee schedule posted by Dougsbpc seem quite high to me (45-52% higher than ours).

vebaguru:

You are absolutely correct, the problem may arise in other contexts.

I just thought that the risk of there being a problem (if there is one) would be exacerbated where the information is shared in a public forum populated by actual or potential competitors.

I want to emphasize that my knowledge of anti-trust law is very, very limited.

Interesting... I was thinking just to opposite. Dougsbpc seemed pretty low to me.

I think the service is worth a lot more, but then again, its worth whatever someone will pay.

I'm with Kirk on this one. BenefitsLink is too valuable as an information sharing resource to taint it with any hint that might be interpreted in a negative light. If you want to share your fees, do it on your website or in other literature, but please not here.

I feel bad that Dougsbpc is getting heat on this - I suspect that he/she is just trying to be helpful to other users of Benefits link - rather than trying to cause any problems. Also, I think it's impossible to say if fees are low or high without knowing what size plan we are talking about and exactly what the services entail, right? Does everyone agree that comparing fees is taboo?

Suffice it to say that Doug meant well and there are some here who object to such information being posted, so we'll end it there.

ASPA undertook a survey a couple of months ago that covered such items so they may have this information available for purchase some time in the not too distant future.

FWIW - I also know nothing whatsoever about antitrust law, but I can tell you that one of my associates attended some conference (don't know which one) with a lot of other TPA's at some point during the last 3 months. They specifically were told not to discuss fees due to antitrust concerns.

And we are cautioned not to discuss fees when attending actuarial conferences.

I appologize for posting these fees.

I had no intention of doing anything other than answering the question. Perhaps I should have tried to get an email address and follwed it up with "here is what some administrators charge".

We do the vast majority of our work locally and have no desire for any new business that does not come to us through local CPA's etc.

Well, we all learned that Effen is ridiculously overpriced



p.s. I object to these objections on the grounds that they are inadmissable hearsay!

His Effen fees are a joke!