PLANSPONSOR - June - July 2022 - 12

UPFRONT
2022 PLANSPONSOR National Conference
THE 2022 PLANSPONSOR National
Conference, held in Orlando, Florida, June
8 through 10, covered trends and practices
in retirement plan design; participant
engagement and education;
investment
options; and compliance updates. We celebrated
the latest Plan Sponsor of the Year
winners at the PLANSPONSOR Awards
for Excellence dinner, now part of PSNC.
Here we present excerpts from three panel
sessions. For more conference coverage,
please visit plansponsor.com.
Innovative Ideas
For Plan Design
Sometimes a participant's request or
special circumstances require plan sponsors
to be creative with plan design.
This was the case for ASM Research, as
described by Tammy Lassiter, the firm's
human resources administrator. Lassiter
explained that a Muslim employee
presented her company's retirement plan
committee with an issue: The Islamic
faith
forbids
holding
funds where
interest is earned; thus, those who follow
Shariah law may not participate in most
401(k) plans.
The new employee was concerned
that she was automatically enrolled in the
company's 401(k). While it was an easy fix
to change her deferral rate to 0%, there
was no way for her to waive the employer
discretionary contribution. With the help
of its plan adviser, Sagemark Consulting,
ASM made two changes to its plan: A
religious exemption was added to the
plan document to allow nonparticipation
in the plan, and a Shariah-compliant
fund was added to the fund lineup. This
second change ensured that Muslim
employees may participate and benefit
from company contributions.
While these design changes were
prompted by a specific issue, sponsors
may also proactively adopt other innovative
ideas for accumulating retirement savings
or pursuing overall financial wellness.
Some of these, which Lassiter and Neal
Stamper, corporate retirement director, and
financial adviser at Graystone Consulting,
a business of Morgan Stanley discussed,
were directing participant contributions
into an individual retirement account once
the person has reached the IRS limits on
" As a point of reference, some 90%
of S&P 500 companies are already
disclosing ESG information in
their recurring statements ... "
12 PLANSPONSOR.COM June - July 2022 Photography by Matt Kalinowski
annual
tax-advantaged
plan
deferrals;
automatically enrolling employees into an
emergency savings account; auto-enrolling
participants earning under $40,000 annually
into making Roth deferrals vs. pre-tax
deferrals; auto-enrolling employees into
financial literacy education; implementing
a waiting period after a plan loan is repaid
before a participant may take another plan
loan; and adding a Roth conversion, aka a
" backdoor Roth, " feature. -Rebecca Moore
ESG Definitions and
New Developments
Bonnie Saynay, managing director of ISS
ESG [environmental, social and governance]
for Institutional Shareholder
Services Inc., parent company of
PLANSPONSOR,
acknowledges
that
ESG is currently enjoying a moment in
the institutional investor spotlight. She
said regulators in Washington, D.C.,
and in various states across the union,
are taking a close look at the development
and distribution of ESG-focused
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PLANSPONSOR - June - July 2022

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