Deals and People April 6, 2015

PLANSPONSOR Announces 2015 Best in Class 401(k) Plans

PLANSPONSOR honors 29 firms with new “Best in Class” 401(k) Plan Designation.
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PLANSPONSOR-Story-Best-in-class-401k.gifPLANSPONSOR is pleased to announce its inaugural selection of companies for its Best in Class 401(k) Plans designation.

Recipients of the 2015 Best in Class 401(k) Plans designation were selected from more than 4,500 plans responding to PLANSPONSOR’s annual Defined Contribution (DC) Survey. 401(k) plans were evaluated and scored on more than 30 criteria related to plan design, oversight/governance, and participant outcomes.

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The 2015 Best in Class 401(k) Plans are:

Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield

Black & Veatch

BlackRock

Bohannan Huston, Inc.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company

CliftonLarsonAllen LLP

The Cooper Companies

DENSO International America, Inc

Directed Account Plan

Essenita Health

FairPoint Communications

First National Bank Alaska

Francis Investment Counsel

Grange Mutual Casualty Company

Lancaster General Health

Land O’Lakes, Inc.

MasterCard

MDU Resources Group, Inc.

Motorola Solutions

National Futures Association

North Shore-LIJ Health System

Portland General Electric

Pitney Bowes

Providence Health & Services

Solix, Inc

TASC, Inc.

TD Ameritrade

TriMas Corporation

Westinghouse Electric Company LLC

 

The companies will be recognized in person at the 2015 PLANSPONSOR National Conference in Chicago, during a main stage panel session with a group of winners to discuss how they built a top defined contribution program, and have been invited to a dinner in their honor on June 3rd.

Plans were required to have certain features in order to be considered. Examples of mandatory criteria include but are not limited to:

  • above average participation rate,
  • use of auto escalation,
  • presence of an employer contribution of any type, and
  • oversight from an investment committee.

Plans were then scored based on a proprietary scoring method that rewards plan characteristics connected to driving better participant outcomes (i.e., plans that provide immediate vesting of employer contributions received more points than plans with three-year vesting schedules). Plans totaling more than 90 points (out of 100) were designated as 2015 Best in Class 401(k) Plans.

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