Insurance broker Woodruff-Sawyer & Co. Inc. has launched its first pooled employer retirement plan in an effort to attract private equity and venture capital portfolio companies. Woodruff Sawyer is targeting startups due to their high turnover rates, making it difficult to manage retirement plans. Pooled employer plans allow unrelated businesses to participate in one aggregated plan.
Woodruff Sawyer is partnering with recordkeeper Empower to launch the plan, with third-party pensions consultant the Finway Group serving as the pooled plan provider. The plan will offer a hybrid target-date fund and collective investment trusts from Capital Group’s American Funds. Woodruff Sawyer will provide investment manager fiduciary services and coverage to sponsors, while the Finway Group will serve as the third-party plan administrator.
According to Woodruff, the plan’s target market is sponsors with plan assets totaling less than $50 million. Pricing for joining the plan is customized for each sponsor. While some sponsors may be able to lower retirement plan costs with the pooled employer plan, not every sponsor will reduce its expenses.
Woodruff has just started sharing the proposal with clients and is still lining up the initial participants. Pooled employer plans were introduced by the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 and expanded by the Secure 2.0 Act of 2022, allowing business owners and employees to save the same amount per year and earn the same tax advantages as with a traditional retirement plan.
