Retirement Plan Fee Disclosure is Old Hat for Securian
ST. PAUL, Minn., Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- As passage of federal legislation and regulatory action requiring retirement plan fee disclosure becomes more likely, plan providers are jumping on the "transparency" band wagon. But companies claiming they are getting ahead of the regulatory curve are way behind Securian Retirement.
"We have made it our practice to explain all of the fees in our retirement plans since we entered the 401(k) business in the 1980s," says Bruce Shay, senior vice president, Securian Financial Group, Inc. "We believe total fee transparency makes sense from a business standpoint, not only because it's the right thing to do, but because it encourages employers to conduct apples-to-apples comparisons when evaluating retirement plan providers."
Securian's downloadable position paper, "Fee Transparency and Investment Neutrality in Retirement Plans" (http://www.securian.com/pdf/F69917.pdf) explains how transparency benefits employees by removing conflicts of interest.
Another aspect of Securian's transparent approach is to offset plan expenses with the revenue sharing payments that investment companies pay plan providers for including their funds as investment options within the retirement plans.
"The revenue-neutral approach to revenue sharing payments makes it clear that we select investment options on the basis of merit, rather than the size of the payment we receive from the mutual fund company," said Shay. "Investment neutrality helps us help employers manage their fiduciary responsibilities. It also helps reduce employees' costs."
Shay added that Securian's fee transparency and investment neutrality apply to all Securian Retirement plans -- past, present, and future.
"Basically, it's business as usual for us," said Shay. "And that's no coincidence."
Securian Retirement, a unit of Securian Financial Group, Inc. has more than 75 years in the retirement market and serves more than 3,200 retirement plans with nearly $9 billion in assets as of September 30, 2008. Annuities and retirement plans are underwritten by Minnesota Life Insurance Co., a Securian affiliate and one of the most highly-rated life insurers in America.
URLs: http://www.securian.com/pdf/F69917.pdf http://www.securian.com/Businesses/retirement/retirement.asp http://www.securian.com/About/financials.asp
Contact: Maggie Jensen, APR, 651-665-7558
SOURCE Securian Financial Group, Inc.
CONTACT: Maggie Jensen, APR of Securian Financial Group, Inc., +1-651-665-7558
Property/Casualty Insurance Joint Industry Forum
Advisor News
Annuity News
Health/Employee Benefits News
Property and Casualty News