How We're Different

Services We Offer Which are Truly Unique in the 401(k) Marketplace


  1. We partner with one of the nation’s only discretionary trustees who accept full fiduciary responsibility (and therefore liability) in your stead.  This liability extends to both custody AND investment management—virtually no other provider accepts liability for investment management in place of the plan sponsor.

  2. “Save More Tomorrow” (SMarT Savings) plan—If your employees do not save enough, the strengths of your Plan will not matter.  Few providers (if any) offer a solution to this tough problem.  The powerful prescription we offer is the “SMarT” Savings plan.  When implemented, your average employee saving rate will increase 2-3% per year.

  3. Investment Advice vs. Education—After more than twenty years, the entire 401(k) industry knows something important about employee investment education – it rarely works.  In the spirit of seeking a “positive outcome for every single employee”, we cross the threshold other providers won’t and offer specific and explicit investment advice to your employees, and accept full liability for that advice.

  4. 100% “Frost Model” revenue sharing—we pass back to your plan all under-the-table payments from mutual funds, including 12(b)(1) and finders’ fee commissions, any other commissions, shareholder servicing fees, and sub-transfer agency fees.  This keeps your Plan’s costs down – especially over time.

  5. Our approach to fees:

    • Fee Only—our only source of compensation is by direct payment from our clients; we do not accept commissions or undisclosed compensation or “soft dollar” arrangements of any kind.
    • Full Disclosure—total transparency in pricing and invoicing, to include not only us but all other service providers to the plan.
    • Revenue Neutral—we make no more or less money regardless of the investment options selected, eliminating any incentive to be anything other than fully objective in our advice to you.

  6. Open Architecture—access to virtually any mutual fund (both load-waived and no-load), private investment managers, and a discount brokerage option to make the field of potential investments virtually unlimited; a condition we view as the appropriate starting point for you as a Plan fiduciary.

  7. Superior Investment Management: We follow the golden rule of portfolio management.  Namely, we invest your Plan’s money with the same care that we invest our own personal money.  We guarantee that all mutual funds added to your Plan’s menu will be ranked in the top quartile relative to the universe of their peers.  Your Plan’s funds will be monitored quarterly and replaced quarterly when required by pre-set criteria.

  8. Service Guarantees and Philosophy—The CEO’s Service Commitment.  You deserve to get a timely and satisfactory resolution to any problems that arise—our CEO will step in if required.

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