Schwab Retirement Plan Services Partners With Newport, Conduent to Expand Capabilities

Schwab Retirement Plan Services, a division of Charles Schwab Corp., announced Wednesday partnerships with retirement solution providers Newport, an Ascensus LLC company, and Conduent Inc. to expand Schwab’s nonqualified deferred compensation and defined benefit plan services.

Schwab announced that it entered the relationships to expand services in the “larger segments of the retirement plan market,” with services that will start in 2024. Schwab will remain as plan provider, with support from Conduent and Newport, and plan sponsors and participants will continue to access their DB and deferred compensation plans through Schwab’s platform.

“We believe these relationships with Conduent and Newport will be a strategic accelerator for us in terms of long-term growth,” says Traci Stahl, chief operating officer of Schwab Workplace Financial Services. “We are continually getting requests from plan sponsors with complex needs that we can now serve through these partnerships. … They don’t want to be using multiple providers—they want to be with one provider that can meet all of those complexities.”

Schwab has been offering NQ and DB plan services for years, but with a focus on 401(k) plans and without some of the capabilities that Conduent and Newport will add, Stahl says. Many of Schwab’s clients, Stahl notes, end up having additional needs due to mergers and acquisitions that can change the make-up of their companies.

Schwab Retirement Plan Services ranks as the eighth largest 401(k) provider by assets, according to PLANSPONSOR’s most recent recordkeeper survey. The provider reported record attendance in its 401(k) educational sessions with participants in March, highlighting its focus on connecting directly with participants about financial management needs.

The expanded capabilities for NQ plans will include nonqualified plan administration; plan design, legal, tax and accounting resources; detailed plan sponsor financial reporting; direct participant payments and W-2 income statement services; and asset liability management, among other areas.

“We’re proud to work with Schwab Retirement Plan Services and offer Newport’s highly respected nonqualified deferred compensation expertise and services to their clients and participants,” David Musto, president and CEO of Ascensus, said in a statement.

Stahl noted key aspects as being the ability for Schwab to manage nonqualified plan documents for plan sponsors, as well as the direct income payments and W-2 income statements the firm can now administer.

On the DB side, the partnership will bring clients with traditional pension plans and cash balance plans services including: data analytics, compliance and reporting tools; support for data remediation and audit services; interactive calculators for participant planning; de-risking strategies, including pension risk transfer, annuity conversion and term vested lump sum payment programs; and administration for frozen DB plans.

For DB plans, Stahl pointed to the de-risking strategies and the administration for frozen and terminated defined benefit plans as key areas clients are requesting.

Charles Schwab has been discussing the additional capabilities with retirement consultants and has “received an extremely positive response,” Stahl says. “They are on those existing relationships, and now can offer these enhanced services.”

Correction: Story corrected to clarify that the expanded services are for nonqualfied deferred compensation services and DB plans.