BPAS has created a special solutions-focused consulting team that will serve as a technical resource to plan sponsors and the retirement plan industry.

The BPAS “Solutions Squad” consists of experts in defined contribution (DC), defined benefit (DB) and health and welfare plans, as well as third-party administrator (TPA) services.

“With the flurry of mergers and acquisitions [M&As] in recent years, business models are changing,” says Paul Neveu, chief executive officer of BPAS. “While there’s considerable technical depth within the industry, some providers are narrowing the services their in-house compliance teams provide—causing gap situations that need to be solved at the client level. We saw how it was adding burdens to plan sponsors and knew we had the resources to help. We understand the sensitivity of these situations, the need for confidentiality and discretion. The key is to identify what went wrong, review possible remedies and take action—not just let the situation fester.”

Maryann Geary, executive vice president of BPAS, says the firm has seen situations where an administrative or operational error occurred and the correction methodology was outside of the provider’s wheelhouse. “There are matters such as coverage testing across controlled groups, complex year-end allocations or true-ups, or where calculations were done wrong for several years as a result of problems with compensation or the benefits formula,” she says. “There are also jump-ball situations when a plan moves from Provider A to B, where an employer ends up in ‘no-man’s land’ as neither provider is willing to handle certain compliance work. The BPAS Solutions Squad can bring great value to these cases, either as a resource to the employer or to one of the providers.”

The Solutions Squad will dive in, review complex situations and work with other parties as an additional business line. It can also provide resources to help in working with legal counsel, accounting firms and IRS and Department of Labor (DOL) regulators.