Paychex Expands Fiduciary Investment Solutions

Paychex, Inc. has expanded its portfolio of partners and solutions that provide investment and administrative fiduciary protection to 401(k) plan sponsors.

The new offerings include Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) 3(21) investment guidance services through Wilshire Associates and ERISA 3(38) investment management services through Mesirow Financial. These new fiduciary services join Paychex’s current 3(38) offerings from GuidedChoice and LPL Financial.

“With these services, we’re making it easier for advisers and plan sponsors to offer investment options in their 401(k) plans that allow them to keep up with the demands of the ever-changing regulatory environment,” says Tom Hammond, vice president of corporate strategy and product management at Paychex. “Our clients will be able to choose from a suite of fiduciary solutions to help them with the complicated investment selection process by outsourcing to professional firms.”

The Wilshire 3(21) adviser services provide a select list of investments that have been screened using Wilshire’s tested methodology, as well as plan-specific quarterly reports to help track and monitor investments. An option to auto-execute recommended fund changes is also available.

Mesirow Index Elite is an ERISA 3(38) investment fund lineup that includes index and target-date funds. The funds in this product are selected and monitored by Mesirow Financial’s industry experts.

“Each fiduciary firm has its own standards for selecting investments, but in general these processes are designed to ensure that the investments made available to participants are continuously monitored,” says Hammond. “This monitoring will improve participants’ experience, while assisting the employer in fulfilling its fiduciary obligations to the plan.” 

In conjunction with MidAtlantic Trust Co., Paychex is also now providing a solution to levelize the commissions paid to financial advisers from fund companies. The program leverages Paychex’s Return of Concessions feature where all commission and revenue share are returned to participants, and all fees are levelized across all participants in the plan.

To learn more about fiduciary investment solutions available through Paychex, visit www.paychex.com/retirement/plan-management.aspx.