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Products March 11, 2009
WMSI, Keane Offer Plan Windup Service
Keane Retirement Services announced it is partnering with rollover provider Wealth Management Systems Inc. (WMSI) to offer an automated service for plan terminations and missing participant resolution.
Reported by Fred Schneyer
A news release from the Wayne, Pennsylvania-based Keane said that through the new offering, plan sponsors terminating plans can reconnect with as many missing participants as possible and then roll over participant accounts into IRAs for missing participants as necessary.
According to the release, sponsors who are interested in this new solution adopt an automated safe harbor IRA rollover process as a plan provision. Applicable participants are then notified, and in the cases where an alternative investment decision is not selected, Keane works with WMSI to open an IRA on the participant’s behalf.
WMSI gives customers access to a variety of IRA providers, reduces administrative costs, provides paperless transaction processing, and gives TPAs and plan sponsors fund activity reports.
“The agreement between WMSI and Keane is an important step forward in providing a comprehensive plan termination process for plan sponsors,” said John Geli, WMSI CEO, in the release.
Fellow rollover service provider RolloverSystems Inc. announced in mid-January that it had published a “best practices” guide for plan sponsors who are contemplating a 401(k) plan termination (see “RSI Publishes Guide for Plans Looking for an Exit Strategy’).