We are a true daily tpa. A few clients have SDBs available in their plans and we are wondering if anyone has any guidelines or suggestions on what charges are appropriate for the administration of the SDBs? Obviously from an administrative standpoint, it causes more work for us to record keep the SDB versus the "main" plan accounts with our custodian since we don't have all investments in creation set up in our software, etc.

Can we charge the participant directly for the admin of the SDB even if the employer pays for the plan expenses other than these? Any idea of amount that would be appropriate?

thanks!

Yes, but only if you have a written policy explaining the extra charges applicable to SDBs (charges applicable to specific plan accounts) will be charged and then you only so charge the SDBs for such charges incurred after the written policy is adopted and communicated to the participants and beneficiaries.

Any suggestions on an appropriate amount to charge for administering SBDs? We found something from Oppenheimer saying they charge $2000 annually per plan and $60 annually per participant.

Client is "fighting" us on the cost associated with it, implying there is no additional adminstrative burden to us if we are not managing the account. Obviously, they don't understand that we are the ones do the recordkeeping not the SDB

Plan terms relating to payment of expenses must fit.