PLANSPONSOR - July - August 2023 - 17

from a fiduciary perspective, whether
ESG brings added risk, Desrosiers said.
" I think probably the question is still out
there as to whether or not [it does]. "
Despite some criticism and litigation
aimed at a few retirement plans, many
nonprofit plans continue to offer ESG
funds, Desrosiers said.
" We are seeing [ESG] in the 403(b)
PLANSPONSOR 2023
NATIONAL CONFERENCE
issue in the " The Overall Benefits Landscape "
session.
Surveying and listening to
employees and inspecting the roster of
benefits offered is critical, said Monica
De Agostino, human resources manager
at MRIGlobal, a technological and scientific
research institute.
For MRIGlobal, the " great resignamuch
more [than in the 401(k)], " she said.
" I have a client that, about a year-and-ahalf
ago, had one ESG fund and took steps
to put an ESG fund in every asset class,
so [the plan could] have an employee who
was 100% in ESG funds but fully diversified.
[Now, the plan is] taking steps to
remove those ESG funds and looking at
lower-cost investment options. "
Kristi Baker, managing partner at
CSi Advisory Services, a division of Hub
International, explained that, given the
growing controversy over the funds and
the possible added risk from including
them, nonprofit clients that offer them or
would like to are asking her for guidance.
She said she discusses the topic with
the plan committee in meetings, covering
what ESG investing is, what an ESG investment
might look like and whether it would
be appropriate; then she documents that
discussion. " The spirit of it is making sure
you have investments that appeal to your
population, and, if ESG is appropriate for
your employees among a diverse set of
investment options, I think it makes a lot
of sense. " She has advised clients to explore
incorporating ESG investments.
Similar
to Desrosiers' experience,
some of Baker's plan sponsor clients have
embraced, then gone back on offering,
ESG options in-plan to participants, she
said. -Noah Zuss
'The Benefits Landscape'
Plan sponsors are tasked with providing
comprehensive and increasingly complex
benefits to employees, yet selecting and
evaluating which benefits the workers
want-beyond
a
retirement
plan-is
complicated. Experts addressed this
PLANSPONSOR.COM July - August 2023 17
tion " of 2021 posed a significant challenge,
De Agostino says. At its height, " we
had lots of market movement happening,
lots of new hires, people leaving as well,
[and] our demographics were changing, "
she said. " How do we figure out what our
current employee demographics want, and
what do they [need] to motivate them? "
MRIGlobal surveyed its workers,
asking them to rank benefits from most
to least important and to cite any changes
to the offerings they would like to see, De
Agostino said.
Possible benefit offerings have
greatly increased, which plan sponsors are
finding, noted Brea Dantin, co-founder of,
and retirement plan adviser at, ProCourse
Fiduciary Advisors LLC.
Employers " now not only have to offer
certain benefits as table stakes, just to get
employees to sign up, but we've gone from
maybe five to 10 benefits to upwards, in
some organizations, of 30 to 40, " she said.
" We're talking about everything from
a retirement plan all the way out to-a
big topic right now-debt solutions [and]
expanding our definition of time off to
include sabbaticals and parental leave,
instead of just maternity leave. "
Employers evaluating their benefits
Employees'
financial security:
It's never been
more important
spend and what employees want must
alter their thinking that more is better,
Dantin said.
" We're in a 'more is more' [mode], but
we need to be in a 'less is more' mode, " she
said. " While we're in a 'more is more' we're
diluting the benefit of some of our overarching
benefit programs. As an employer,
I want to make sure my employees-and,
as an adviser, our clients, the employers-
are really valuing the benefit, and I don't
know that they can win [with] that quantity.
" If you're trying as a consumer, as the
employee, to sift through 30 to 40 benefits
with different vendors and websites and
apps, nobody's got time for that, right? "
Dantin said. " Because after work-in my
household, I'm feeding three dogs when
I walk in the door, [because] they want
it now-I'm not sitting down and going,
'How, as a consumer, do I optimize my
dollar or my benefits spend?' "
-Noah Zuss
Read about our conference speakers and panelists, who covered everything from
fiduciary duty and investment lineups to plan design, health benefits, cybersecurity
best practice and retirement income, at plansponsor.com/tag/psnc2023.
Thank you to our sponsors.
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
http://www.plansponsor.com/tag/psnc2023 http://www.PLANSPONSOR.COM
PLANSPONSOR - July - August 2023

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