Corporate Retirement Plan Services & 401(k) Consulting
Optimize your corporate retirement plans, reduce administrative burdens, and protect your organization with independent, fee-based fiduciary oversight.
Our Four Pillars of Corporate Retirement Services
Mitigating Liability and Maximizing Employee Outcomes
Managing a modern company retirement benefit requires a strategy that protects the enterprise while empowering the individual. At Gordon Asset Management, our approach is designed to achieve two critical corporate objectives: mitigating your organization's fiduciary risk and maximizing your employees' retirement outcomes. By implementing rigorous ERISA compliance protocols, objective fee benchmarking, and flexible co-fiduciary frameworks, we significantly insulate your board and HR leaders from personal liability. Simultaneously, we optimize plan architectures and deliver targeted participant education to drive higher engagement, maximize corporate tax deferrals, and transform your 401(k) program into a powerful tool for attracting and retaining top-tier talent
01: Strategic Plan Design
Customized Plan Architecture
We design customized retirement plan layouts built for your operational scale, specializing in Safe Harbor 401(k) setups, Profit Sharing features, and advanced Cash Balance Plans to optimize corporate tax deferrals.
02: Fiduciary Risk Mitigation
3(21) and 3(38) Fiduciary Protection
We actively shoulder investment liability by acting as a 3(21) or 3(38) investment fiduciary. Our team oversees fund selections, builds investment policy statements (IPS), and keeps your committee compliant with evolving regulations.
03: Independent Fee Benchmarking
Transparent Fee Auditing & Cost Control
Overpaying for recordkeeping or investment management opens your company up to litigation risk. We systematically benchmark your plan fees against peer datasets to verify that you are paying institutional rates.
04: Participant Education & Wellness
Active Employee Financial Guidance
A retirement plan is only successful if employees understand it. We provide direct participant education, financial wellness libraries, and enrollment resources to maximize participation and drive retirement readiness.
Step 1: The Plan Diagnostics & Fee Audit
We aggregate your current 408(b)(2) fee disclosures, recordkeeper agreements, and fund performance data. Our team runs a comprehensive fee benchmarking evaluation to identify overpricing, compliance gaps, and optimization opportunities.
Step 2: Architecture & IPS Realignment
We rewrite or refine your Investment Policy Statement (IPS) to establish clear guidelines. Next, we optimize your investment menu, remove underperforming options, and integrate advanced features like auto-enrollment or safe harbor provisions to reduce administrative stress.
Step 3: Fiduciary Oversight & Active Education
We handle the heavy lifting ongoingly. Our team schedules structured fiduciary committee reviews, updates your documentation files, and delivers on-site or digital participant wellness training to drive enrollment and maximize plan utilization.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a 3(21) and a 3(38) fiduciary advisor?
A 3(21) fiduciary acts as a co-advisor who provides investment recommendations to your committee, leaving the final decision-making liability with your business, while a 3(38) investment manager takes full discretionary authority to choose, monitor, and replace plan investments on your behalf. Choosing a 3(38) framework allows your organization to completely delegate investment management liability and insulate your board from fund-selection risk.
Why is regular retirement plan fee benchmarking critical for business owners?
Regular fee benchmarking is legally required under ERISA guidelines to verify that your recordkeeping, administrative, and investment costs remain reasonable relative to your plan size. Failing to systematically audit and benchmark these fees creates severe compliance exposure and opens corporate executives up to employee litigation risk over expensive or underperforming investment options.
How does a corporate Cash Balance Plan differ from a traditional 401(k)?
A Cash Balance Plan is a hybrid defined benefit plan that allows business owners and high-earning corporate executives to make massive tax-deferred contributions far exceeding traditional 401(k) annual limits. While a 401(k) caps employee contributions, a Cash Balance Plan allows older, highly-compensated professionals to shelter six-figure sums annually into a corporate tax-advantaged account.
How does Gordon Asset Management help reduce the internal HR administrative workload?
We act as an outsourced retirement plan overlay, handling investment monitoring, document compilation, fee comparisons, and required compliance documentation updates. By streamlining plan architecture and delivering direct participant financial education, we free up your internal HR team from day-to-day plan monitoring stressors.
Does Gordon Asset Management provide corporate retirement plan consulting outside of North Carolina?
Yes, Gordon Asset Management delivers qualified retirement plan consulting nationally across the United States. In fact, most clients are located outside of North Carolina. While our primary regional consulting hubs are located in Durham, NC and Pinehurst, NC, our remote infrastructure allows us to smoothly advise committees and run participant education for multi-state workforces coast-to-coast.
Who is the ideal corporate client for Gordon Asset Management's retirement services?
Our ideal corporate clients are forward-thinking business owners, executives, and plan sponsors who value institutional risk management and employee retention. We fit best with organizations that want to optimize their tax strategies through plan design, verify their fees are fair, and actively insulate their internal board members from personal fiduciary liabilities.
Do you require a minimum plan asset size to engage your corporate advisory services?
We evaluate potential corporate engagements based on the unique facts and circumstances of the organization rather than a rigid plan asset threshold. We look to partner with committees where we can add maximum impact; the more complex your company structure, workforce demographics, or tax mitigation needs are, the more measurable value our advisory team can deliver. We work with all plan sizes from start-up's to plan to multi-billion dollar plans.
How is Gordon Asset Management compensated for corporate retirement plan consulting?
We utilize a transparent, fee-based compensation model primarily structured around a flat advisory fee or an institutional percentage of plan assets under management. All advisory costs are benchmarked against industry standard rates and are fully disclosed upfront in our service agreements, eliminating hidden revenue-sharing arrangements or product-pushing conflicts of interest. Fees are benchmarked at least annually to ensure alignment to industry averages.