Investment Fiduciary Services

Investment Fiduciary Services

Careful investment option selection and monitoring are critical to helping your plan participants reach their retirement goals. This comprehensive oversight also requires significant responsibility, time and expertise to execute properly. By partnering with HTLF Retirement Plan Services, you can focus on running your business while we do the heavy lifting. HTLF Retirement Plan Services can help by acting as a §3(38) Investment Manager of your retirement plan investment lineup, thereby reducing required investment duties, operational risk, administrative needs, and potentially significant liability. Our open architecture approach offers your plan a powerful combination of mutual funds, CITs, and ETFs as investment options. Our fees are fully transparent, and we offer a disciplined fiduciary process for fund selection. Additionally, we can include Target Date Retirement Funds and professionally managed asset allocation models.

When reviewing your current investment options, ask yourself the following questions:

• Who is responsible for the investment decisions in your plan?
• What is the process for investment decision-making? Is it well-documented?
• Who creates, monitors, and ensures compliance with your plan's Investment Policy Statement?
• Is your plan free from conflict of interest in investment selection? For instance, does your plan menu include several or mostly proprietary funds from your plan provider?
• Does your plan include outdated fund share classes that increase your liability and potentially increase the fees paid by your participants? If so, why are the funds still in the investment menu?

• How is your provider being paid for their investment recommendations?

  
  

As your 3(38) Investment Manager, HTLF assumes responsibility concerning the creation of an Investment Policy Statement (IPS), investment selection and monitoring, and investment reporting.

Investment Policy Statement (IPS) Development

• We establish the plan’s formal Investment Policy Statement which governs the selection of plan investments and their ongoing monitoring.

  
  

Investment Menu Design

• We offer an unbiased, open architecture, fee-transparent process when identifying and structuring appropriate investment options to be included in a defined contribution plan.

  
  

Investment Reporting and Monitoring

• Ongoing assessment of the fund's investment manager, portfolio returns, and risk relative to peer groups and indexes.
• Regular monitoring of under performing funds and replacement of funds that no longer align with IPS criteria.
• Robust investment reporting articulating our fiduciary oversight and the overall plan’s performance.