ASCCA 401(k) Retirement Plan Exchange® Solution
ASCCA 401(k) Retirement Plan Exchange® solution is a complete, cost-effective, turnkey retirement solution.
ASCCA has partnered with Transamerica to help employers spend more time running their business, not their retirement plan. The ASCCA 401(k) Retirement Plan Exchange® handles administrative duties, reduces your risk, and is cost-effective.
What is it?
The ASCCA 401(k) Retirement Plan Exchange® uses Transamerica's 401(k) Retirement Plan Exchange® solution platform. It is based on sound structural elements that have been developed over the past 20 years, reviewed, and successfully tested to accept fiduciary responsibilities specified by ERISA law and IRS and Department of Labor (DOL) regulations while striving to maintain compliance with applicable laws and regulations to reduce fines and penalties.
Advantages
Five advantages with the ASCCA 401(k) Retirement Plan Exchange®
Making it simple
Employers don't want to be 401(k) experts.
As the plan's third party administrator, TAG Resources supports plan setup, implementation, monitoring, enrollment, and other duties.
Fiduciary protection
Employers don’t want to be at risk.
By shifting administrative and certain named fiduciary duties to TAG Resources, employers can significantly reduce their defined legal obligations and responsibilities.
Compliant
Employers don’t want fines or penalties.
The plan uses processes developed to administer plans according to DOL and IRS guidance to help avoid compliance issues.
Well-known providers
Employers want to work with industry leaders.
The ASCCA 401(k) Retirement Plan Exchange® combines industry-leading professional service providers for "end-to-end" retirement plan oversight, including robust tools and resources for employees.
Cost-effective
Employers don’t want to overpay.
The ASCCA 401(k) Retirement Plan Exchange® is built on a pooled pricing model and may cost less than other programs offering fewer comprehensive services.
Administrative responsibilities
The ASCCA 401(k) Retirement Plan Exchange® removes more than 90% of your administrative tasks compared to sponsoring a plan outside of the Exchange.
Your load is lighter with the ASCCA 401(k) Retirement Plan Exchange®
As a retirement plan sponsor, your responsibilities* are to select and monitor service providers and:
- Upload payroll files**
- Collect year-end data**
Without the ASCCA 401(k) Retirement Plan Exchange®, your responsibilities are:
- 3(38) Investment Manager appointment, monitoring, and removal
- 402(g) limit reporting
- 404(a)(5) notice distribution
- 404(c) notice distribution
- 408(b)(2) notice distribution
- Annual discrimination and coverage testing
- Auto-enrollment notice distribution
- Beneficiary determinations
- Blackout notice distribution
- Census review
- Corrective distributions
- Death benefit approval
- Distribution reporting
- DOL and IRS issue resolution assistance
- Eligibility calculations
- Eligibility notifications
- Error correction monitoring
- Force out processing
- Form 5330 preparation and filing
- Form 5500 preparation, signing, and filing
- Form 8955 preparation, signing, and filing
- Fund change notice distribution
- Hardship withdrawal approval
- Loan approval and reporting
- Loan default monitoring
- Loan policy administration
- Lost earnings calculations
- Participant enrollment assistance
- Payroll aggregation
- Plan design review
- Plan document interpretation
- Plan document preparation and archiving
- QDIA notice distribution
- QDRO determinations and reporting
- Required minimum distributions
- Safe harbor notice distributions
- Summary Annual Report production and distribution
- Summary of Material Modification notice distribution
- Summary Plan Description production and distribution
- Termination date verification and maintenance
- Termination withdrawal approval
- Vesting verification and tracking
- Year-end data collection and review
DOL audits can be costly for your business!
The IRS penalties are $250 per day up to a maximum of $150,000. The DOL penalty is up to $2,739 per day, with no maximum.
As named fiduciaries on your plan, we will mitigate this risk for you, provided that your business provides complete, accurate, and timely data for TAG to prepare and submit the Form 5500 filing on your behalf.
Core benefits
Removes pressure
Takes pressure off your internal administrative resources and allows you to use those resources elsewhere.
ERISA support
Provides access to service providers with ERISA and investment expertise.
Fiduciary responsibility
TAG delivers fiduciary protection at the highest level.
Work with investment professionals
Outsources investment selection responsibility to investment professionals.
Nearly 25 years of experience
Experience over enthusiasm
Retirement plan providers are currently struggling to deal with pooled structures. Many are enthusiastically working with pooled plans, such as pooled employer plans (PEPs), for the first time. Transamerica has been an innovator in pooled structures for nearly 25 years. Our experience has helped employers understand how to structure the plan to get the best savings and protection available to you.
We have a proven track record of understanding employers' needs and effectively meeting those needs.
Additionally, retirement plans carry significant fiduciary liability and government compliance exposure for employers. The ASCCA 401(k) Retirement Plan Exchange® outsources most fiduciary responsibilities and compliance to TAG Resources to the highest extent available. While most retirement plans do not offer this level of fiduciary and compliance assistance, TAG works as your retirement department by becoming a signatory named fiduciary on your retirement plan.
Participant experience
Driving participant success
The Transamerica participant experience is designed to help people understand if their savings and investment strategy is in line with their retirement goals. It starts with enrollment and continues with personalized communications and financial education showing participants how they can improve their retirement readiness.
An easy-to-understand forecast is generated by the underlying methodology provided by Morningstar. Using simple weather icons, it shows participants if their current investment strategy is likely to produce the income they’re seeking in retirement and offers steps to improve their chances of achieving their goals. Your Retirement Outlook® is featured prominently on the participant website, mobile app, and quarterly statements.
Key partnerships
ASCCA
Automotive Service Councils of California (ASCCA) is a statewide trade association representing independent automotive repair shop owners commonly bound by an interest in the automotive repair industry. ASCCA provides resources to its members to improve operations by saving you time AND money. The ASCCA helps shop owners position their business in the industry for long-term growth and success tomorrow.
Plan administrator
TAG Resources
TAG Resources is a named fiduciary as a plan administrator and a non-investment 3(21) fiduciary under ERISA sections 402(a), 3(16), and 3(21).
As such, TAG Resources is responsible for the day-to-day operations of your plan. The functions we perform on your behalf include: the signing and filing of the Form 5500, include services such as QDRO determinations, plan operations, participant claims and appeals, distributions, and beneficiary determinations.
Recordkeeper
Transamerica
Transamerica is an industry-leading recordkeeper with nearly 25 years of experience with pooled arrangements. Our time-tested recordkeeping technology offers a proven infrastructure allowing for pooled arrangements, ensuring a plan will be administered successfully and accurately for the plan participant’s transition to retirement.
Investment manager
Fiduciary-Plus
Fiduciary-Plus is a named fiduciary to the plan, responsible for the investment selection, monitoring, and ongoing due diligence of the funds in the investment menu in accordance with the Investment Policy Statement (IPS) for the plan. RPA Financial helps business owners and plan committees manage fiduciary liability by accepting responsibility for investment decisions as an ERISA-defined 3(38) discretionary investment manager and also offers clients cost analysis with annual fee benchmarking, plan governance educational webinars, and a fiduciary vault to support storage of vital documentation. RPA Financial, as the 3(38) investment manager, has $24 billion in assets under advisement as of December 31, 2023.
Financial professional
Knox Financial
We're ready to help.
Visit us today at ascca.com