EAE Program

ERISA Advisor Evaluator
To assist plan sponsors with the evaluation of ERISA advisors and drive consolidation of advisory services to expert retirement plan advisors, the CFDD is developing an online RFP program called the EAE.

The cutting edge software application  will help sponsors find, identify, contrast and evaluate retirement plan advisors who meet the CFDD’s minimum standards. The minimum standards are based on extensive research and network feedback. The EAE’s RFP process will focus exclusively on the evaluation of retirement plan specialists rather than vendor searches.

The game changing EAE will professionalize the  advisor selection process and have a major impact on the consummation of future retirement plans business.  In addition to professionalizing the search process, the low cost, convenient and easy to use EAE will increase the sponsor’s efficiency, reduce their burden and provide risk mitigation by documenting a prudent process for the retention of advisory services.

Beyond helping sponsors with their fiduciary duty to select and monitor advisors, the independent EAE will help “expert” retirement plan advisors in the database participate in the consolidation of advisory services and facilitate a more competitive program for participants.

The credible and referable EAE will also drive cross sales of select products, like fiduciary liability insurance, expanded E&O coverage, designations, etc. More importantly, it will identify the plans and advisors in play. To measure effectiveness, the CFDD will maintain information on who is using the service, the number of searches, popular search criteria and why the winning advisors were selected.

Minimum Criteria

Advisor Application

Advisor User Agreement

Why EAE
Few plan sponsors are fully cognizant of their retirement plan duties under ERISA. While the duties are rarely prioritized, the law requires fiduciaries to implement a prudent process for evaluating and monitoring advisors.

Since its inception over thirty years ago, the courts have interpreted ERISA as the highest fiduciary standards known to law. These standards require plan fiduciaries to seek outside experts when they lack the knowledge to fulfill their duties.

Given the corporate staff reduction, increased liability and decline in sponsor satisfaction, the advisor's role has never been more important. Sponsors have become more knowledgeable about retirement plans, but evaluating ERISA plan advisors remains a specialty within a specialty. While there has been little guidance available to assist sponsors with advisor selection in the past, the EAE will provide an unmatched solution.

EAE Marketing

To drive business to advisors in the EAE database, the CFDD is aggressively marketing the EAE directly to plan sponsors. The marketing effort includes prestigious alliance partners that already have brand with sponsors, select media outlets, sponsor organizations, conferences, guest articles, white papers, academic initiatives, direct marketing and more.

To grow their business, advisors must become more efficient, communicate their value proposition, increase activity, improve closing ratios and unwind relationship sales. Given that most marketing expenditures are less than effective, advisors are aggressively recommending the EAE to prospects and premier distributor organizations have joined the program.

To compensate for their fear of the unknown, sponsors often make emotional decisions and award business to existing relationships. To facilitate a more prudent process, the CFDD will communicate the duty, liability and importance of the advisor selection process directly to plan sponsors.

The new EAE website, www.ErisaAdvisorEvaluation, will include both sponsor and advisor areas. To leverage our advisor brand, the marketing program will include a new EAE newsletter that focuses on the rise in fiduciary breach claims, settlements and litigation. It will also discuss the sponsor’s duties, legislative & regulatory requirements and provide tips on how to evaluate advisors.

Insurance Discount Program
As a major value add, plan sponsors and advisors using the EAE Program are pre-qualified to receive a significant discount on their respective fiduciary liability and E&O Insurance. Advisors registered for the current CFDD Advisor Conference qualify for the same E&O insurance discount. Additionally, the CFDD's advisor clients may offer the fiduciary liability insurance discounts to ALL of their plan sponsor clients.

The EAE Plan Sponsor Process
The online EAE tool is designed for plans of all sizes and while it contains standardized RFP questions vetted by industry experts, sponsors will have the ability to add, delete, modify or customize their questions.

Participating advisors will have the flexibility to pre-populate, save and retrieve the standardized questions. This is important because polished responses play a major role in the selection process. They also take time and may have to be approved by compliance.

In addition to the RFP, the base sponsor service will include training & tutorial components, meaningful links and downloads. An optional consulting service will be available on a fee basis to assist sponsors with RFP development and management. The consulting service will not include advisor evaluation, but advisors participating in the EAE program must meet minimum standards.

Once the RFP questionnaire is completed, the selected advisors will be contacted and given a fixed amount of time to populate the RFP using a web-hosted system. Upon receipt of all data, sponsors may access an automated scoring system that permits them to weight the responses based on customized preferences. Once the process is complete, sponsors may request additional information or download and forward the report to committee members.

The plan sponsor user fee is tiered by size and complexity. Base pricing includes five (5) advisor responses and access to the online RFP tool until the search is completed or up to one year. Additional advisors may be included in the search for an incremental fee.

Advisor Participation
To add value and assist sponsors, the CFDD will maintain a searchable database of qualified retirement plan specialists. Advisors listed in the EAE database will incur a nominal annual fee.  Additional team members housed in the same office may also participate at a reduced fee.

While the sort function allows the plan sponsor to determine their own criteria, advisors must meet the CFDD’s minimum criteria to participate. If the advisor operates as a solo practice, the criteria will apply to individual advisor. If the advisor is part of a team, the criteria would apply to the group, but each advisor will have a separate listing.

The minimum criteria was somewhat challenging because fiduciary standards are evolving and it must meet the needs of multiple market segments, including the small plan market. To remain neutral, it must also meet the needs of individual practices, teams, independent firms and advisors with broker-dealer affiliations.

In addition to meeting the minimum criteria, each advisor must complete a standardized questionnaire profiling their book of business, expertise and services offered. The profiling questionnaire will be used by sponsors for search purposes, sorting and standards-based selection purposes only, i.e., confidential information will not be included in the profile.  For marketing purposes, the EAE Advisor Profile may be downloaded and forwarded to plan sponsors.

Upon completion of the profiling questionnaire, brochures, bios, articles, awards and other pertinent information showcasing the advisor’s skills may be uploaded.   In other words, the additional upload flexibility will be a powerful and no cost marketing tool. To protect proprietary material, access to the profiling questionnaire, brochures and other uploads will be limited to sponsors.

Both sponsors and advisors are expected to read and accept the conditions. If the advisor declines the RFP, a reason must be provided. When an advisor is no longer under consideration, the sponsor must also provide a reason.

Profiling Questionnaire

EAE Overview

Tangible Value Added Support

Like advisors, vendors must participate in consolidation and maintain assets as well as clients. Although vendors and product manufacturers are not eligible to participate in the EAE database, their association with top advisors is conducive to business development. As a result, the CFDD has established value added sponsorships for vendors.

To stay abreast of new EAE developments, please revisit this page in the weeks ahead.