PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 32

Phillips Companies
Corporate 401(k) <$25mm
Plan at a Glance
TOTAL PLAN ASSETS/PARTICIPANTS: $13,500,000/93
PARTICIPATION RATE: 99%
AVERAGE DEFERRAL RATE: 7.80%
DEFAULT DEFERRAL RATE: 3%
DEFAULT INVESTMENT: Fidelity Freedom Funds - Class K6
AUTOMATIC ENROLLMENT/ESCALATION: Yes/Yes
EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTION: 100% on 4%; 3% safe harbor
contribution, plus possible profit-sharing contribution up to 4%
In 2017, Phillips Companies hired an independent Employee
Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) Section 3(38) fiduciary
investment adviser, Anderson Financial Strategies. Timothy
Brown, director of retirement plans at Anderson, leads the client
service effort.
In these first two years of collaboration, Anderson has
President and Plan Administrator Brad Phillips
P
hillips Companies, a provider of construction and landscape
services in Beavercreek, Ohio, is a family-run business with
a long history.
President Brad Phillips explains that his grandfather started
the business in 1942. Phillips' father joined when he graduated
from college, along with his older brothers, who were veterans of
World War II. By the time the next generation took over, in 1967,
the company had already implemented a tax-qualified retirement
savings program. At that early stage, it was a bank-run supplemental
savings program, and later the plan was updated to be an
insurance-based plan.
" I came to work here in 1987, and at that time we were still
using the insurance-based approach, " Phillips says. " Around
the year 2000, we made the decision to embrace the modern
401(k) plan. "
32 PLANSPONSOR.com April - May 2019
worked with both the employer and the employees to reduce
overall costs, cut back on duplicative investment options and put
together a broad financial wellness program.
Initially, individual meetings between the employees
and the investment adviser were mandatory. Phillips says this
requirement, along with the addition of progressive automatic
plan design features, has led to a 99% participation rate and an
average employee deferral of nearly 8%.
Total Buy-In
" One thing we take a lot of pride in as an adviser is that we push
hard to get in front of the participants and have regular, ongoing
face-to-face conversations, " Brown says. " It's really nice when
you have a plan sponsor that buys in to this 100%, as Phillips
Companies does. It's a strong statement when the plan sponsor
makes face-to-face meetings mandatory. We did some of these
initial meetings in the offices and some out in the field-literally
out in the gravel mining pits-meeting with each employee. We
saw a strong response from the workers. "
According to Brown, the Phillips Companies leadership
has worked diligently to make sure the employees know the

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PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019

2019 Plan Sponsor of the Year Winners and Honorees
2019 DB Administration Survey
2019 PLANSPONSOR Service Stars
Acting on ESG Principles
Pension Risk Transfers Increase
Out of Harm's Way
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - C1
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - FC1
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - FC2
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - C2
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 1
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 2
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 3
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 4
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 5
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 6
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 7
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PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 11
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 12
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PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 14
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PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 18
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 19
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 20
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 21
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 2019 Plan Sponsor of the Year Winners and Honorees
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 23
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 24
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 25
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 26
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 27
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 28
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 29
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 30
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PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 38
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PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 40
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 41
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 42
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 43
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PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 45
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 46
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 47
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 2019 DB Administration Survey
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 49
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 50
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 51
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 52
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 53
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 54
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 55
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 56
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 57
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 2019 PLANSPONSOR Service Stars
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 59
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 60
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 61
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 62
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 63
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 64
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 65
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 66
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 67
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - Acting on ESG Principles
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 69
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - Pension Risk Transfers Increase
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 71
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - Out of Harm's Way
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 73
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 74
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 75
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 76
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - C3
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - C4
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/may_june_2024
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/march_april_2024
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/january_february_2024
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/november_december_2023
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/september_october_2023
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/july_august_2023
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/may_june_2023
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/march_april_2023
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/december_2022_february_2023
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/october_november_2022
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/august_september_2022
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/june_july_2022
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/excellenceawards_2022
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/april_may_2022
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/february_march_2022
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/december_2021_january_2022
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/october_november_2021
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/august_september_2021
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/june_july_2021
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/april-may_2021
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/february-march_2021
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/december-january_2021
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/october-november_2020
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/august-september_2020
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/june-july_2020
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/april-may_2020
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/february-march_2020
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/december-january_2020
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/october-november_2019
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/august-september_2019
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/june-july_2019
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/april-may_2019
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/february-march_2019
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/december_2018-january_2019
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/october-november_2018
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/august-september_2018
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/june-july_2018
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/april-may_2018
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/february-march_2018
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/december_2017-january_2018
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/november_december_2017
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/october_2017
https://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/september_2017
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