Newport Completes Year-Long Campaign to Help Raise Awareness of Retirement Plan Fees

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Newport Group, a leading provider of retirement and executive benefit plans, announced today that it has completed a year-long initiative designed to help companies and their employees better understand the true costs of their retirement plans.

“In accordance with these new regulations, Newport will be providing plan sponsors and participants with ongoing explanations of individual services and costs”

“One year ago, we told our plan sponsors and their advisors that the Department of Labor had issued final regulations for sponsor and participant fee disclosure,” said Dennis Sain, Newport Senior Vice President, Retirement Services.

“This was an initiative we supported fully and enthusiastically. For many years, Newport has led the industry in fee transparency, and our plan sponsors have consistently recognized this by naming us 'best in class' for both fee disclosure and fee fairness.”

Sain noted that Newport’s year-long information campaign included regular legislative updates to plan sponsors and advisors as the Department of Labor (DOL) changed deadlines, clarified rules, and updated regulations and requirements. These updates included not just newsletters and sample disclosures but workshops and live and recorded webcasts featuring the firm’s legal experts.

“These presentations proved so popular that some of our client and advisor firms requested individual sessions as well,” Sain said. “Throughout this year in particular, we received a great deal of positive feedback about the effectiveness of our approach. Although much of this was complex information about rules on deferrals, investments, restrictions, costs, and fees, Newport presented it in a way that could be easily assimilated and used by plan sponsors and financial advisors.”

The deadline for providers such as Newport to disclose fees to their existing plan sponsor clients was June 29 of this year. Sponsors themselves are required to provide the initial full fee disclosure to their employees by August 30. Sain noted that although this second deadline has arrived, “the DOL does not intend retirement fee disclosure to be a one-time event.”

“In accordance with these new regulations, Newport will be providing plan sponsors and participants with ongoing explanations of individual services and costs,” he said. “We believe that raising awareness of these issues is a positive development, and one that fits well with Newport’s long tradition of full disclosure and fee fairness.”

About The Newport Group

Founded in 1984, The Newport Group is a leading retirement services firm — specializing in the creative design and administration of retirement and executive benefit plans. Through its innovative and customized solutions, Newport is uniquely positioned to satisfy the distinct financial needs of employers and employees, and has done so for hundreds of the country’s largest and best-known companies.

Newport is headquartered in Heathrow (Orlando) FL, with service centers in Charlotte, NC, Dallas, TX, Greensboro, NC, La Crosse, WI, Orlando, FL, Richmond, VA, and St. Petersburg, FL. Newport also has offices in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Denver, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, NY, San Francisco, and St. Louis MO. For more information, visit www.newportgroup.com.