Fiduciary Retirement Plan Consulting & Management
Build a Plan That Protects Your Business and Empowers Your Team
As a business owner, partner, or executive, sponsoring a retirement plan is one of the most impactful ways to reward your people, attract top-tier talent, and build tax-advantaged wealth for your own future. Yet managing a company retirement plan also carries substantial administrative weight and personal legal responsibility under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
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Under federal law, plan sponsors are held to an exacting standard of fiduciary care. When you select investment menus, monitor plan costs, or oversee administrative decisions, you are personally accountable for acting solely in your participants’ best interests.
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At Lafayette Financial Planning, we serve as your dedicated corporate fiduciary partner. We lift the regulatory and operational burden from your shoulders—bringing institutional diligence, transparent fee structures, and conflict-free stewardship to your 401(k), 403(b), or profit-sharing plan.
Understanding Your Fiduciary Roles: ERISA 3(21) vs. ERISA 3(38)
ERISA defines distinct levels of fiduciary responsibility for investment advisors. We offer both advisory models, allowing your leadership team to choose the governance structure that best fits your internal capacity and preferred level of involvement.
ERISA Section 3(21)
Fiduciary Consulting
(Co-Fiduciary)
ERISA Section 3(38)
Investment Management (Discretionary Fiduciary)
Under an ERISA 3(21) engagement, we act as a non-discretionary co-fiduciary. We perform the rigorous due diligence, design your Investment Policy Statement (IPS), benchmark plan expenses, and provide formal recommendations regarding your investment lineup. Your retirement committee reviews our findings and makes the final decision on whether to adopt those recommendations.
Under an ERISA 3(38) engagement, you formally appoint Lafayette Financial Planning as your discretionary investment manager. We take full legal responsibility for selecting, monitoring, rebalancing, and replacing the underlying investment options in your plan.
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The Benefit: You receive institutional-grade guidance and fiduciary support while retaining ultimate control over the options offered to your employees.
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The Benefit: By delegating investment decisions to us in writing, your plan trustees and board members significantly mitigate their personal fiduciary liability for fund selection and ongoing performance monitoring.
What We Deliver for Your Plan
Our retirement plan services are comprehensive, objective, and designed around four core pillars:
Vendor & Fee Benchmarking:
We analyze all layers of plan costs—recordkeeping, administration, custodial, and advisory—negotiating with vendors to ensure your company and participants are paying fair, transparent fees.
Investment Policy Statement (IPS) & Menu Architecture:
We establish a documented IPS and curate a diversified lineup of low-cost, institutional-grade index funds, target-date options, and asset classes that avoid proprietary conflicts.
Ongoing Fiduciary Documentation:
Fiduciary compliance requires a disciplined, repeatable process. We provide quarterly monitoring reports, documented committee meeting minutes, and ongoing vendor evaluations to keep your plan audit-ready.​
Participant Education & Financial Wellness:
A retirement plan only succeeds when employees understand how to use it. We conduct clear, jargon-free education sessions, helping team members optimize their contributions, navigate tax advantages, and align their retirement goals.
Transparent, Fee-Only Pricing
In keeping with our firm-wide commitment to pure fiduciary transparency, our retirement plan advisory fees are 100% fee-only. We never accept commissions, 12b-1 mutual fund distribution fees, revenue sharing, or third-party incentives from recordkeepers or fund companies.
Our annualized advisory fees are calculated as a blended percentage of assets under management, billed quarterly in arrears:
Plan Assets Under Management (AUM)
Annual Fee
First $1,000,000 ($0 – $1,000,000)
1.00%
Next $1,000,000 ($1,000,001 – $2,000,000)
0.80%
Next $3,000,000 ($2,000,001 – $5,000,000)
0.60%
$5,000,001 and Above
0.50%
Advisory fees can be paid directly by the corporate plan sponsor as a tax-deductible business expense or deducted pro-rata from plan assets by the qualified custodian. Fees do not include separate recordkeeper or third-party administrator costs.