Data-driven analytics, industry best practices, and a dedicated service team that drives a best-in-class retirement program.

Cost containment strategies

Plan sponsors need full visibility into every cost associated with their retirement program, and the ability to measure whether those costs are reasonable. We provide a complete cost analysis at every plan review meeting and benchmark the plan against national, normative data. Our evaluation covers investment expenses, recordkeeping costs, operational fees, and advisory services (yes, we even benchmark ourselves). In addition, we’ll periodically market the plan to obtain cost and service insights.

Investment due diligence

Thoughtfully constructing and monitoring the retirement plan lineup is at the core of what we do. We utilize a proprietary scoring system to assess each investment through quantitative and qualitative factors, focusing on attributes such as style consistency, risk/return characteristics, and share class analytics. Through a heavily documented process, investment due diligence and related changes are maintained by us in a fiduciary file for future reference in a plan audit.

Employee engagement

The average employee may have a variety of financial concerns and needs – between the rising cost of living, reducing debt, and planning for other goals, saving for retirement can feel overwhelming. Retirement education should include access to resources that address the entire financial picture, not just retirement. Our suite of retirement and financial well-being education offers content on a variety of topics. Additionally, if you offer your employees a health savings account (HSA), we educate on how the HSA can be a powerful retirement tool for one of the largest retirement expenses, healthcare.

The MMA Midwest difference

We know that operating a retirement plan involves a broad range of details to keep track of. That’s why our team goes beyond the basics of advisory services and instead functions as an extension of your HR/plan operations team. We won’t just pass you off to the plan recordkeeper and hang out on the sidelines – instead, we want to be your first call on all matters related to the plan so we can partner with your recordkeeper and support you the whole way through. We’ll help institute best practices and keep close watch on all compliance and fiduciary matters.

Advisory services that go beyond the lineup

We’re dedicated to delivering services that address the entire scope of the plan. We have the expertise and dedicated focus to support plan design, operations, compliance details, and anything in between.

Operational support

We understand the intricacies of plan operations and how they correlate to regulatory standards and the employee experience. As a dedicated, daily resource, we’ll offer clarity and guidance, to both you and your employees to ensure the plan is well supported. If operational errors exist, we’ll help manage any corrective processes.

Plan design

Designing a retirement plan involves careful consideration for both the employee experience and operational impacts. Our team will consult on your plan document, suggesting modifications to align with best-practices and enhanced participant outcomes, while keeping your payroll structure, goals, and operations in mind.

Fiduciary governance

We will maintain a fiduciary file, housing key documentation for audit purposes. We will also support the plan through each annual compliance task. Additionally, we keep close watch on all industry legislation to ensure you are up-to-date. Lastly, our in-house ERISA counsel is a resource for complex or regulatory concerns.

Promoting a culture of financial well-being

Our approach to financial well-being involves breaking complex topics down into more digestible segments. Through short videos, our educational website and webinar channel, mobile app capabilities, and the promotion of recordkeeper resources, employees have access to content that can help them plan for retirement while managing their financial needs today. For an even more personal financial well-being solution, MMA’s ProsperWise™ offers one-on-one coaching in addition to web-based content.

Expert insights, trends and strategies for retirement services

Flyers

Thriving together: Navigating the intersection of employee health and financial well-being

By aligning these crucial elements, organizations can foster a culture of well-being, creating a workplace environment where employees thrive and contribute to the organization’s overall success.

Flyers

2024 retirement plan cost of living adjustments

The IRS has announced the cost of living adjustments to the dollar limits on qualified retirement plan benefits for 2024.

Videos

Roth vs Pre-Tax

Choosing between Roth and Pre-Tax contributions for a retirement plan can be a challenge. Learn about the benefits of both options and how to decide which one is best for your personal financial situation.

Upcoming events

Webinar | Millennials and Gen Z and money

As a millennial or Gen Z aged adult, do you feel like financial education slipped through the cracks and left you with more questions than answers? Are you in the stage of life where you just want to figure out the next steps to being financially secure and building toward a healthy financial future? If you said yes, make sure you join this webinar. This session will give you practical tips to live for today and plan for tomorrow!

Date: May 14th, 2024 

Time:  2 pm, ET 

Duration: 60 minutes

Speakers: Yolanda Gardner, Financial Wellness Coach

Webinar | New parents new accounts - saving for education

Given the rising costs of tuition, clients with young children, or even grandchildren, are probably concerned about paying for future educational expenses. This Life Lessons: 529 seminar shows your clients smart ways to save and why starting now is so important.

Date: May 21, 2024 

Time:  2 pm, ET 

Duration: 60 minutes

Speakers: Rob Kelley, AIF®, CPFA®, Director of Financial Wellness and Consulting

Carlin Champion, C(k)P®, Defined Contribution Team Lead, MFS Investment Management

Webinar | Health savings accounts 101: How to optimize this savings strategy

A Health Savings Account is a type of savings account that lets you set aside money on a pre-tax basis to pay for qualified medical expenses. By using untaxed dollars in a Health Savings Account (HSA) to pay for deductibles, copayments, coinsurance, and other expenses, you may be able to lower your overall health care costs. But there is so much more to this underutilized benefit.

Date: June 11, 2024

Time:  2 pm, ET 

Duration: 60 minutes

Speakers: Rob Kelley, AIF®, CPFA®, Director of Financial Wellness and Consulting

Webinar | Q2 Financial Trends

Please join Marsh McLennan Agency for an update on the economic and market environment for the 2nd quarter of 2024. Members of our investment team will provide commentary on the investment landscape and discuss some of the factors driving the market's recent performance. The session will conclude with Q&A.

Date: July 10, 2024

Time:  2 pm, ET 

Duration: 45 minutes

Speakers: Zach Rosenoff, Senior Investment Consultant

Tim Swanson, Chief Investment Officer

Frequently asked questions

While it is possible for a plan sponsor to utilize their recordkeeper for investment lineup management, there are numerous advantages to partnering with a retirement plan advisor. As a neutral third-party, we are not tied to any proprietary funds or lineup options. Instead, our investment due diligence will be based on the analytics of the quantitative and qualitative fund factors as well as the cost implications. Additionally, we regularly market the plan to ensure it is cost competitive. These market insights can provide valuable leverage for cost reductions or service additions as the plan demographics grow over time. Lastly, we support the plans operations with industry best practices, and our in-house ERISA counsel can serve as a resource on matters requiring a legal perspective. This depth of support and investment and provider neutral consultation can generally not be obtained in a recordkeeper-direct model.

There is no such thing as an “average” workforce – while some employees can be easily reached in a designated company space, there are many environments where employees are spread out through regular travel, remote work, shift and field work, or situations in which they are running a process or line that cannot be shut down for them to attend a retirement meeting. We have a variety of resources to reach employees that may not have immediate access to us – any of our employee sessions can be recorded and reviewed later, and we offer numerous videos and on-demand resources that are mobile friendly for employees who don’t work in front of a computer during the day but do have a mobile phone. In addition, we can create a mobile app for your workforce that brings a variety of resources together into one convenient app. If you have a centralized breakroom or common space that employees filter in and out of, we can use flyers with QR codes that link out to mobile resources. For increased accessibility, we can create a video specific to your plan that can be played in English or Spanish and viewed with subtitles in a multitude of other languages.

If you receive a letter notifying you that your retirement plan is being audited by the IRS or DOL, we want to be the very first call you make. From there, we will engage our in-house ERISA counsel for insight. We will sift through all requested items and partner with your plan recordkeeper to build an audit file that contains key reporting and documentation. We will review this documentation to ensure adequacy and advise on any gaps or discrepancies, and keep you apprised of where data may need to come from internal systems and processes, such as payroll. When the DOL or IRS is onsite, we will be on-call to expedite any additional documents needed. Lastly, we will work through any follow up items with you to close out any audit findings.

Securities and investment advisory services offered through MMA Securities LLC (MMA Securities), member FINRA / SIPC, and a federally registered investment advisor. Main Office: 1166 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036. Phone: (212) 345-5000. Variable insurance products distributed by MMA Securities LLC, CA OK 81142. Marsh & McLennan Insurance Agency LLC and MMA Securities LLC are affiliates owned by Marsh & McLennan Companies. Investment advisory services for MMA Prosper WiseSM are offered solely as a Registered Investment Adviser through MMA Securities. Certain of our investment adviser representatives are registered representatives of MMA Securities. A copy of our written disclosure statement discussing our advisory services and fees is available for your review upon request. Please consult a tax professional for specific tax inquiries and recommendations. www.MMARetirement.com