PLANSPONSOR - June/July 2020 - 20

RESEARCH | 2020 RECORDKEEPING SURVEY
as call volumes have been spiking-is
important for sponsors to do. " Plan sponsors
should never have a 'set it and forget
it' mindset as it relates to running a
retirement plan, especially if the vendor
is serving as a directed trustee, " he says.
" The sponsor should have regular checks
and balances for various types of vendor
activities. "
Plan sponsors
should never have
a 'set it and forget
it' mindset as it
relates to running
a retirement plan,
especially if the
vendor is serving as
a directed trustee.
Like some other recordkeepers, The
Standard has been able to handle the
increase in call volume with its existing
staff, says Joel Mee, senior director of
retirement plan sales. However, for a short
time, from the end of March through the
beginning of April, the company temporarily
brought on more workers.
Besides ensuring that their call
centers operate smoothly, " [recordkeepers]
should also confirm that all of
their operations-e.g., investing, trading,
investor relations, compliance, required
recordkeeping-are functioning as anticipated
under their business continuity
plan, even if such functions are occurring
remotely, " says the Wagner Law
Group post.
Plan sponsors of course will wonder
about the status of these operations.
" While the existing agreement with the
recordkeeper may not reference business
20 PLANSPONSOR.COM June - July 2020
Total Defined Contribution (DC) Assets, Plans and Participants


Total assets
$8,263,066
Plan Size
<$10mm
$10mm - $50mm
>$50mm - $200mm
>$200mm
Total plans
815,336
Assets ($mm)*
$925,854
$864,922
$941,229
$5,531,061

Total participants
111,673,974
Plans*
754,701
45,315
10,299
5,021
Participants*
22,685,285
15,490,953
14,938,663
58,559,073
*Not all providers report complete data; therefore, data segmented by plan size will not equal the
corresponding overall total.
Growth in Total DC Plan Assets ($mm)
$8,263,065
$7,467,594
$5,961,980
$6,085,769
$7,119,309
2016
2017
2018
continuity plans, it may contain a force
majeure provision, " Wagner says.
" That
provision, in all likelihood, will not cover
pandemics but may address generally how
the recordkeeper is to respond in an emergency
situation. The plan sponsor could
inquire how the business continuity plan
has been working and if there have been
any glitches, but if it is informed that everything
is working well, it probably has no
further duty of inquiry. "
Recordkeepers whose BCP lacks
procedures for a pandemic should add
2019
2020
them, the Wagner Law Group's attorneys
wrote. Sponsors might be reassured
to know, for instance, that their recordkeeper's
BCP calls for having emergency
contact information for all of its staff and
that cloud-based systems protect security
if a sponsor had to communicate with
workers digitally.
Mee says, as far as a BCP is concerned,
" The Standard has a robust business
continuity plan that includes business
impact analysis, risk management, crisis
management, crisis communications,
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