PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2018 - 70

Service Star Individuals
Bruce Dale, Empower
Retirement
Paula Hoover, Securian
Financial Group
Robert Martino, T. Rowe Price
Joseph Michael, OneAmerica
Brandon Trippe, Newport
Group
Cristy Wilson, Nationwide
Service Star Teams
Ascensus
Charles Schwab
CUNA Mutual Retirement
Solutions
Prudential Financial
VALIC
Service Star Individual
Bruce Dale
Helped the plan sponsor comply
with IRS regulations, protecting
participant assets
RECORDKEEPER
COMPANY:
Empower
Retirement
CLIENT: City of
Austin 457 Plan
CLIENT INDUSTRY:
Government/
Public works/City/Municipal
CLIENT HEADQUARTERS: Austin, Texas
PLAN ASSETS/PARTICIPANTS:
>$200mm-$500mm/10,300
BIO: Bruce Dale, managing director,
government relationship, for Empower
Retirement, has spent his entire career
at Great-West/Empower, having joined
Great-West's financial services division
in 1991 as a call center representative.
He has since held many positions, in one
running the implementation teams for
70 PLANSPONSOR.com April-May 2018
the entire organization. He currently is
relationship manager for the City of Austin
defined contribution (DC) plan and
several other large governmental defined
contribution plans.
DURING an internal audit at the City of
Austin, a discovery was made: The city's
457 plan funds were being held in a
liability account and not in trust with the
plan per Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
regulations. According to Section 457(g)
of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), all
amounts deferred under eligible IRC
Section 457(b) plans of state and local
government employers must be set aside
in trust for the exclusive benefit of plan
participants.
So the plan contacted its relationship
manager, Bruce Dale of Empower
Retirement. Dale, whose formal title is
managing director, government relationship,
has devoted most of his career to the
government market and knew the importance
of keeping a plan in compliance
with all applicable laws-in this case,
those " specifically regarding keeping
plan assets in trust for 457 plans, " he says.
This was a complex issue, taking 17
months to resolve, says A.J. Padilla of the
plan. " There have been countless hours
of meetings, phone calls and research,
leading to the plan assets being moved
in trust within the plan, " Padilla says.
During that near year-and-a-half, Dale
worked closely with the plan sponsor
and Empower's internal teams to educate
the plan about the transition and assist
Padilla in performing it.
" The root cause of the issue was
discovered during the conversion, " Dale
explains. " We identified the issue and
[helped] the plan through the process. "
Padilla points to the end result,
which is multifaceted: " Bruce helped the
deferred compensation committee reach
compliance with the IRS regulation that
protects the plan but, more importantly,
protected the participants and their assets.
Bruce has been instrumental in moving
the City of Austin 457 plan forward. "
Service Star Individual
Paula Hoover
Helped plan sponsor integrate
a new provider by altering
the software format needed
RECORDKEEPER
COMPANY:
Securian
Financial Group
CLIENT: Tom Lange
Company, Inc.
CLIENT INDUSTRY:
Food service
CLIENT HEADQUARTERS: Springfield, Illinois
PLAN ASSETS/PARTICIPANTS:
>$10mm- $25mm/170
BIO: Paula Hoover has been a senior
account manager, plan sponsor services,
in Securian Financial Group's retirement
division for 19 years, having started there
27 years ago as a contract technician.
SWITCHING to a new provider and
altering administrative practices can
often be disruptive-as The Tom Lange
Company, Inc., learned firsthand when
switching payroll providers last year.
According to Jena Bagot, from the
company, " Throughout this process, I had
to manually prepare files for our 401(k)
plan, when the process had been automated
previously. "
Paula Hoover, a senior account
manager with Securian Financial Group,
notes the complexity of the operation.
" When Tom Lange changed payroll
providers, the transition was difficult and
very time consuming for the company.
They were auditing and recalculating all
contributions/compensation calculated
by their old provider for over a year. "
Hoover was called in to help, and
her assistance was invaluable, Bagot says.
" Paula pushed our payroll provider to
get its files into the correct format. She
found and fixed my errors, figured out
the quirks and bad data in our new payroll
provider's files and worked directly with it
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