Joel Shapiro: Aligning Your DC Plan IPS With Your Investment Monitoring

Be More Than A Fiduciary

Joel is a former practicing ERISA attorney and long-tenured member of NFP Retirement's senior management team. As President of NFP Retirement Joel is charged with expanding the retirement practice in terms of scale, breadth of services, and geographical footprint. Leveraging both his legal and investment experience, Joel seeks to ensure that the NFP Retirement practice is cutting-edge in providing exceptional client experiences at all levels.

Joel came to 401(k) Advisors in February 2006 from Hewitt Associates with over 10 years of technical experience related to 401(k) plans and ERISA issues. Prior to this, he practiced law with the law firm Fennemore Craig, P.C. in Phoenix, Arizona.

Joel earned his BA from Tufts University; his JD from the Washington College of Law at the American University; and, his LL.M in taxation from the Georgetown University Law Center. He has passed the FINRA Series 6, 63, and 65 exams and is a frequent speaker at industry events, such as The Society for Human Resource Management.

In 2009, 2010, and 2011 he was named among the prestigious 401kWire / 401kExchange “Top 60" and "300 Most Influential Advisors in Defined Contribution” list and received Top Ten status for his asset category.

On a personal side, Joel is an avid sports enthusiast, a collector of multimedia art, and enjoys spending time on the beach with his family and Fitz and Ginger (their Weimaraner and Vizsla, respectively) and coaching the boys to football championships!

In this episode, Eric and Joel Shapiro discuss:

• Three essential documents for making prudent investment decisions
• Creating a well-defined IPS
• The fiduciary investment review scorecard system
• The purpose of writing a meeting minutes document

Key Takeaways:

• The investment policy statement (IPS), fiduciary investment review, and meeting minutes are documents that represent the past, present, and future of the investment process and provide a clear roadmap for the committee to follow.
• The IPS is a critical document that should provide clear guidelines for fiduciaries to make informed decisions. It should be easily understandable and should have separate sections for different asset types. A well-defined IPS should typically lead committee members to the same conclusion, even without an advisor's input.
• The fiduciary investment review is another important tool for evaluating investments. The information presented should align with ERISA's dictates on prudence and should break down investments into different categories, evaluating them based on style analytics, risk return against benchmarks, peer group rankings, and qualitative factors like manager tenure and expense ratios.
• Meeting minutes document the committee's decision-making process and provide a record of the discussions and actions taken. They demonstrate that the committee is following a sound process and making prudent decisions based on the information available.

“To the young ERISA practitioner, don't be afraid of the committee member who asks tough questions. Engage them. Those are the individuals, frankly, that are going to make you a better practitioner.” - Joel Shapiro

Connect with Joel Shapiro:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-shapiro-687b044/

Connect with Eric Dyson:

Website: https://90northllc.com/

Phone: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/401kguy/

The information contained herein is general in nature and is provided solely for educational and informational purposes.

It is not intended to provide a specific recommendation of any type of product or service discussed in this presentation or to provide any warranties, financial advice or legal advice.

The specific facts and circumstance of all qualified plans can vary and the information contained in this podcast may or may not apply to your individual circumstances or to your plan or client plan specific circumstances.