OneAmerica Expands Fiduciary Support Options

In collaboration with Mesirow Financial Investment Management, Inc., OneAmerica announced the debut of 3(38) Flex as an option for retirement plan sponsors to ease their fiduciary burden while allowing clients to retain their preferred fund choices.

“Because we understand the importance of selecting investments that are appropriate for each retirement plan, we’re again expanding our services to help financial professionals and plan sponsors offer a quality retirement plan for attracting and retaining employees,” says Terry Burns, assistant vice president of products and investments for OneAmerica RetirementServices.

OneAmerica fiduciary support options already offer 3(21) Standard and 3(21) Auto Execute as well as 3(38) Standard, all through Chicago-based Mesirow Financial. The idea behind 3(38) fiduciary protection, created as part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), is to transfer risk and reduce liabilty, putting fund decisions in the hands of qualified professionals instead of plan sponsors. With Standard 3(38), plan sponsors select their plan utilizing a Mesirow-built investment lineup as opposed to researching and selecting their own und lineup. Mesirow continues to monitor those funds on behalf of the plan sponsor.

The 3(38) Flex extends to plan sponsors the ability to maintain their existing fund lineup. Mesirow reviews both the lineup’s asset classes and investments and, if both meet Mesirow’s criteria, they will approve the lineup. The 3(38) Flex is optimized for new and existing customers and was created as result of industry demand.

“The custom approach allows advisers and sponsors seeking to elect 3(38) coverage to do so with an eye towards minimizing disruption to the existing lineup,” says Michael Annin, senior managing director at Mesirow.