From BOK Financial

Tulsa Community Foundation (TCF) has more than 600 employees and supervises over 250 agency funds that serve charities throughout Oklahoma and the U.S. The 401(k) plan includes many different employers – currently two dozen participating nonprofits – and is growing quickly. Human resources manager, Liz Parducci, nominated Halbrook and Armstrong for helping her navigate 401(k) management for this complex plan.

“Chesney has been patient in assisting a brand-new team taking over the administration of the 401(k) plan,” says Parducci. “Both myself and the current payroll and benefits administrator had not managed a 401(k) plan in our previous roles. She answered questions, helped us problem solve, and assisted us in keeping compliant while we added about 300 employees in the past year and a half. Her partner Logan Armstrong is also a great support and patient with the learning curves of a new HR team.”

Halbrook and Armstrong have a lot to do every time a new nonprofit joins the TCF 401(k). “We prepare amendments to add the new participating employers to the plan’s adoption agreement,” says Halbrook. “We also set up the new entities to send in contribution files securely. We provide education and onboarding materials for the new employees to help TCF with employee engagement and participation in the retirement plan. There are many moving parts, but TCF is great at providing us all necessary details to help us get things set up timely.”

They also need to train the staff at each nonprofit that is added to the plan. “TCF is continuing to grow, and with each new benefits or payroll admin roll they add to staff, Logan and I make ourselves available to train them on the website, best payroll practices and plan features,” says Halbrook. “After the initial training session, we’re always a phone call away to help answer any questions that may come up.”

For example, each of the two dozen participating employers in the plan submit their own payroll. “Logan and I helped TCF organize that process early so that each of the entities’ payroll files are clearly identified,” says Halbrook. “Once this was done, it helps the benefit and payroll administrators at TCF and the recordkeeping team here at BOKF better track late or missing contribution files.”

Armstrong was particularly helpful when TCF had issues with their payroll provider. “Logan has worked to help verify that the funds arrive on time and notifies us promptly when our payroll provider makes mistakes,” says Parducci. “Once funds were entered into the wrong account, and Logan spent hours helping us recalculate and correct.”