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Retirement Plan

Declaration of Independence

February 3, 2015 by admin

“Can you be more specific?”

Embarrassing, but true: the retirement industry is asking that of the US government.

The definition of a Fiduciary needs to be more specific because of cases where Plan Sponsors are legally charged unreasonable fees for a long time, but the Department of Labor’s interpretation is undesirable to Wall Street. Of course, Wall Street is on the receiving end of these unreasonable fees.

As an investment advisory firm who identifies in writing as a fiduciary to our clients, we uphold the interests of our client above those of any other interest, because we have no other interested parties. The unfortunate reason that other investment advisors will not agree to sign a fiduciary agreement with a client is because they are “promised” to a large company, who profits from a retirement plan through hidden fees.

While the Plan Sponsor is unaware of this other agreement, and often the Investment Advisor is not entirely upfront about this agreement with the Plan Sponsor’s representatives, it comes out in the end through hidden fees and a whole mess of ugly policies.

The sort of game run here should be illegal. Not because the Plan Sponsors are not careful, instead they often are smart and diligent, but because they are simply not protected by the law. Up to this point, the law is unclear. The Independent Advisor they supposedly hire is not, after all, independent according to a stricter definition now proposed by the Department of Labor, led by Phyllis Borzi.

Insist upon a clear definition of an independent advisor so that you know your advice comes for the interest of your retirement plan, and not for the interest of someone else’s quasi-legal activity. Sign the petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/414/401/760/tell-washington-to-stand-up-to-wall-street/

 

Michele L. Suriano, Accredited Investment Fiduciary™, is president of Castle Rock Investment Company, a woman-owned SEC registered investment advisory firm serving qualified retirement plans. www.CastleRockInvesting.com

Filed Under: 401K, Advice, Blog, Castle Rock Investment Company, Department of Labor, ERISA, Fiduciary, Industry News, Katherine Brown, Michele Suriano, Plan Administrator, Retirement Plans, SEC, Uncategorized Tagged With: #SaveOurRetirement, Accredited Investment Fiduciary, Castle Rock, Castle Rock Investing, Castle Rock Investment Company, Department of Labor, DOL, ERISA, Fiduciary, hidden fees, independent investment advice, Investment Advisor, Katherine Brown, Michele L. Suriano, Michele Suriano, petition, Phyllis Borzi, Plan Sponsors, Registered Investment Advisor, retirement, retirement advice loophole, Retirement Industry, Retirement Plan, RIA, Save Our Retirement, SEC, stand up to wall street, strict definition fiduciary, unreasonable fees, US Government, Wall Street, washington, Woman-Owned, workplace retirement plans

Risk Management: Employee Retirement Plans

January 23, 2015 by admin

Risk ManagementCastle Rock jumps through hoops to be among the best investment advisors. Not every investment advisor goes through the same rigorous training because these hoops are not legally required. We do not think that making best practices a legal requirement will diminish our status as one of the best firms around, but we do think that selecting an investment advisor should be less risky for Plan Sponsors.

You are supposed to be careful of sales pitches that avoid using the term “fiduciary” but stress “education” instead, because those are not interchangeable services. The difference between these services would be like exchanging accounting for bookkeeping services, or medicine with surgery, or heads with tails in a coin toss. Providing education does not negate a need for a fiduciary; rather, a fiduciary investment advisor should be around for cases where education does not meet the plan’s needs, and an expert opinion is necessary.

How confident are we that Castle Rock is the place to turn? We are the best retirement investment advisor around. You can check our About Us section to be sure, or better yet Contact Us.

Our qualifications exceed all of these expectations, but you may want to check to see if your own advisor is able to eliminate some of the risks to you as a plan sponsor[1]:

  1. At least 50% of assets under management in qualified retirement plans (ours are 99%);
  2. Has an Accredited Investment Fiduciary™ or similar designation;
  3. SEC Registered Investment Advisor (RIA);
  4. Make sure your advisor has been working in the industry for at least a decade;
  5. Get a fee agreement that clearly states how the fees will be charged; and
  6. Make sure that fiduciary status is in writing.

To show your support for conflict-free advice in all retirement plans, please sign the petition here at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/414/401/760/tell-washington-to-stand-up-to-wall-street/

 

Michele L. Suriano, Accredited Investment Fiduciary™, is president of Castle Rock Investment Company, a woman-owned SEC registered investment advisory firm serving qualified retirement plans. www.CastleRockInvesting.com

Filed Under: 401K, Advice, Blog, Castle Rock Investment Company, Department of Labor, ERISA, Fiduciary, Industry News, Michele Suriano, Plan Administrator, Retirement Plans, SEC, Services, Uncategorized Tagged With: Accredited Investment Fiduciary, Advice, Castle Rock, Castle Rock Investment Company, Department of Labor, Experienced Investment Advice, Fiduciary, Michele Suriano, Phyllis Borzi, Plan Administrator, Plan Sponsor, Registered Investment Advisor, retirement advice loophole, Retirement Industry, Retirement Plan, Risk, Save Our Retirement, workplace retirement plans

What’s Going On?

January 22, 2015 by admin

Source: Bloomberg
Source: Bloomberg

A fiduciary duty, the obligation to uphold the clients’ interest above all else, is Phyllis Borzi’s long sought and tunneled for goal that we at Castle Rock uphold and agree whole-heartedly with. Together, our standards are the highest in the retirement industry. She says that, like in the movie Groundhog Day, bad policies keep being relived over and over. We want to stop the origin of the problem: the poor incentive structure.

Her aim is to make incentives to advisors as straightforward as possible in retirement plans so that the resulting fees will not surprise retirees and leave them with less than they planned.

When investment advisors do not sign up to be fiduciaries to the plans they advise, it leads to corruption and changes the fee structures of these plans so that the retirees no longer have the same security after 65 (typical retirement age). Liability to the Plan Sponsor also changes, and the integrity of the investment advisor themselves is challenged as well.

One example of how the Plan Sponsors are hung out to dry is the John Hancock case, where unreasonable fees were not seen as criminal because of this legal loophole.

Sign your support for reform here at SaveOurRetirement.com!

 

Michele L. Suriano, Accredited Investment Fiduciary™, is president of Castle Rock Investment Company, a woman-owned SEC registered investment advisory firm serving qualified retirement plans. www.CastleRockInvesting.com

Filed Under: 401K, Blog, Castle Rock Investment Company, Department of Labor, ERISA, Fiduciary, Industry News, Retirement Plans, Uncategorized Tagged With: 408(b)(2) Regulation Checklist, Castle Rock, Castle Rock Investment Company, Department of Labor, Discussions, DOL, ERISA, Fiduciary, hidden fees, Investment Advisor, John Hancock, Liability, Michele Suriano, Phyllis Borzi, Plan Sponsor, retirement, Retirement Industry, Retirement Plan, workplace retirement plans

Are you In or Out?

January 21, 2015 by admin

What sense does it make to pay for investment advice that comes from someone who is putting his or her interests before yours?

The Department of Labor, through Phyllis Borzi, is fighting to make sure that a loophole allowing conflicted advice to retirement plans is closed. As of last week, an online petition was started by consumer groups and retirement industry giants, including AARP, at http://saveourretirement.com/. The petition is to tell Washington to stand up to Wall Street and close the loophole.

We at Castle Rock are proud to endorse this petition.

The low returns that people often find in their 401(k) or IRA accounts are due to fees that are either hidden or “bundled” so that you need hire a detective to figure out who is getting paid and how much. Please do your homework when you look for an advisor for your retirement plan. In America, today, folks can pay for advice that is in conflict with their best interests and there is no law against it.

We are proud to put our clients’ interest first and maintain our independence from compromised business practices. If you support our work and want conflict-free investment advice to be the law of the land, please sign the petition at http://saveourretirement.com/take-action.html.

Are you in or out? Will you join the fight for qualified retirement investment advice?

 

Michele L. Suriano, Accredited Investment Fiduciary™, is president of Castle Rock Investment Company, a woman-owned SEC registered investment advisory firm serving qualified retirement plans. www.CastleRockInvesting.com

Filed Under: 401K, Advice, Blog, Castle Rock Investment Company, ERISA, Fiduciary, Industry News, Retirement Plans, Uncategorized Tagged With: bundled fees, Castle Rock, Castle Rock Investment Company, Department of Labor, DOL, ERISA, hidden fees, IRA, Michele Suriano, Phyllis Borzi, retirement advice loophole, Retirement Plan, Save Our Retirement, Take Action

How May I Help You?

November 13, 2014 by admin

Castle Rock is dedicated to making retirement transition easy for you. One of the best ways to do that is to be with you in retirement transition and throughout the different stages of your retirement. We are excited to announce that we will soon offer a Retirement Transition Service to ease the retirement process for individuals, and to provide our clients with the piece of mind that all participants are taken care of.

Because we want you to have a part in how we build this new service, please reach out to me at Katherine@CastleRockInvesting.com with your comments and goals for retirement. We will try to incorporate as much as we can into the best service for you.

Stay tuned as we introduce the details of this program!

Filed Under: 401K, Advice, Blog, Castle Rock Investment Company, Fiduciary, Katherine Brown, Michele Suriano, Retirement Plans, Retirement Transition Service, Services, Uncategorized Tagged With: Advice, Castle Rock Investment Company, Excess contributions, Fiduciary, Highly-compensated employees, Income Solutions, Katherine Brown, retirement, Retirement Plan, Retirement Planning, Retirement Transition, Retirement Transition Service, workplace retirement plans

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About Us

Castle Rock Investment Company, formed in 2006, is an independent woman-owned SEC-registered investment adviser located in Castle Rock, Colorado. We specialize in individual financial plans and qualified service plans.

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