PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2018 - 50

Total Retirement Offering
Landscape Structures Inc.
S
ince 2016, when Landscape Structures
Inc. (LSI) added advisory firm intellicents
inc. as 3(38) fiduciary investment
manager for its 401(k)-at both the plan
and participant levels-the sponsor has
paid much more attention to plan-success
benchmarks. Defining and tracking
retirement readiness for this Delano,
Minnesota, playground product manufacturer's
work force has helped both
employees and employer.
Providing employees with an annual
personalized retirement-readiness report
gives them a clear picture of whether
they are on track or need to take action,
says Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Fred
Caslavka. " It provides a starting point,
when employees meet one-on-one with
intellicents, for them to make good and
informed choices about their financial
future, " he says. " And having a retirement
readiness report across our employee
base has given the company an opportunity
to address and set goals for potential
improvement for LSI as a whole. "
Working in Tandem
Landscape Structures has both a 401(k)
and an employee stock ownership plan
(ESOP)-through which it is 100%
employee-owned-to help employees
save for retirement. " The 401(k) is the
foundation of our retirement program
and is necessary to be competitive in the
marketplace, " says Karlye Emerson, vice
president, corporate strategy and human
capital at the company. " The ESOP
enhances our continuous-improvement
culture to one of investment and ownership,
and provides employees with assurance
that they can be self-supporting in
their retirement years. "
The employer aims for employees
to be able to maintain their standard of
living in retirement, which LSI defines
as having 75% to 100% of their preretirement
income. According to its most
current statistics, based on a 2016 retirement
readiness report done by intellicents,
71% of employees were on track to
achieve that savings goal.
Landscape Structures sees itself and
its employees working in tandem to help
ensure they save enough for retirement.
" We encourage employees to at least put
away 8% of their earnings in the 401(k),
so they receive the full 4% employer
match. And the ESOP has contributed,
on average, 15% of their earnings each
year, " Emerson says. " This sets up LSI to
contribute more than twice the amount
the employee does.
" However, " she continues, " the
success of the ESOP is in the hands of all
employees: Together, we grow the business
and benefit from the rewards when
the stock price increases. In the past five
years, the ESOP has outperformed our
50 PLANSPONSOR.com April-May 2018 Art by Chris Buzelli
TOTAL PLAN ASSETS/PARTICIPANTS:
$33.7 million/491 for 401(k) and ESOP,
combined
PARTICIPATION RATE: 94.9%
AVERAGE DEFERRAL RATE: 7.64%
DEFAULT DEFERRAL RATE: 3%
DEFAULT INVESTMENT: Custom risk-based
models using core investment menu
AUTOMATIC ENROLLMENT: Yes
AUTOMATIC ESCALATION: Yes
EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTION: 50% on 8%,
plus variable ESOP contribution
401(k) investments, even considering the
strong bull market for equities we have
experienced, " she says.
Plan-Level 3(38) Work
In its role as Landscape Structures' planlevel
3(38) adviser, intellicents effectively
has taken over fiduciary discretion on
the composition of the investment menu,
says Bradley Arends, CEO and senior
consultant at the company, in Albert Lea,
Minnesota. " We decide whether a fund
manager gets hired or fired, " he says.
" Landscape Structures has an oversight
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