Products September 19, 2018

Principal to Launch Online Chat for Retirement Plan Administration Questions

The new support option will connect retirement plan sponsors to Principal client service associates in real time throughout their work day.

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Principal Financial Group announced the fall launch of an online chat feature to answer retirement plan administrative questions.

The new support option will connect retirement plan sponsors to Principal client service associates in real time throughout their work day.

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The new functionality was co-designed with the end user and centers on providing responsive support, and self-sufficiency all in one place. Principal says retirement plan sponsors value the problem resolution ability of an experienced service team member. The new online chat feature offers an easy way to get administrative questions answered at a time that is most convenient to plan sponsors while minimizing disruption to their work day.

“It’s important for Principal to support plan sponsors in real time so they can focus on the most impactful features of their retirement plan design, such as event automation and personalized participant engagement,” says Jerry Patterson, senior vice president of Retirement and Income Solutions at Principal. “Those features help improve retirement outcomes for our customers and their employees.”

The new chat feature will be launched in a staged format to a pilot group of small and medium business customers beginning this fall. At launch, the service will be available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT.

An example of what the chat feature will look like is here.
Compliance September 19, 2018

Business Owner Gets Prison for Benefit Plan Embezzlement

A DOL investigation found the business owner used benefit plan contributions for corporate and personal expenses.

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The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland has sentenced a Maryland business owner to one year and one day of imprisonment, and ordered him to pay $354,175 in restitution for violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

Nathan Williams pleaded guilty to one count of theft or embezzlement from his company’s employee benefit plan.

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The order comes after an investigation in which the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), working with the U.S. Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), determined that, from January 2012 to September 2012, Williams failed to deposit employee contributions to the plan. According to the EBSA and OIG, Williams withheld these contributions from employees’ paychecks, but used some of these funds for corporate and personal expenses.

The order shows Williams was the sole owner and chief executive officer of NW Systems Inc., based in Largo, Maryland. The company was the sponsor of the employee benefit plan in question.

“The embezzlement of employee contributions to company retirement plans undermines the private pension system,” observes EBSA Regional Director Michael Schloss, in Philadelphia. “The U.S. Department of Labor will aggressively pursue those who misuse funds from employee benefit plans.”

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