ERISA was just the beginning of massive changes in how retirement plans are regulated and administered. While there are more retirement options than ever before, a defined benefit (DB) plan is still a major component to how over 1/3 of working Americans plan to pay for retirement. Not only are DB plans important to the individuals receiving the benefit, they are also beneficial for employers as well. For example:

• Delivering the same retirement income to a group of employees is 46% less costly in a typical DB plan than in a defined contribution (DC) plan
• 72% of employees cite retirement benefits as an important factor in their loyalty to their employer according to a 2008 survey
• DB pension coverage increases tenure with an employer by 4 years, as compared to having no retirement plan in place, while DB coverage increases tenure with an employer by 1.3 years, as compared with DC coverage

Do More with Less

Plan administrators and HR teams are continually asked to do more with fewer resources. This is why it is more important than ever before to routinely check the life status of pensioners and terminated vested participants. These participants financially impact your Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) premiums, plan funding level, and fund reserves.

At Berwyn Group we can tackle some of your time-consuming data quality issues so you can focus on guiding those about to retire and keep your plan strong for years to come. We frequently assist our customers with:

• Finding missing participants and updating addresses for outreach during plan terminations
• Locating vested individuals approaching the age of 70 ½ to provide benefits
• Correcting audit reporting figures to reduce PBGC premiums and underfunded plan fines
• Stopping overpayments to those unaware that it is fraud to keep unentitled money
• Reducing fraud and associated costs to keep plan funding available to deserving pensioners

If you have any questions on how our tools might assist you in meeting your fraud prevention goals, please contact us.