Solutions for Law Firms

Investment advisory and fiduciary services for law firm retirement plans delivered by experienced advisors.

How we can help.

We help law firms design and deliver competitive retirement benefits that put their partners and staff in a position to successfully retire when the time comes.

As one of the largest independent providers of fiduciary investment advisory services, CAPTRUST works with more than 170 law firms around the country on defined contribution, defined benefit, deferred compensation, and cash balance plans.

CAPTRUST’s understanding of the legal industry benefit landscape along with our deep bench of resources and scale uniquely position us to help keep your plans competitive, engage partners and staff, benchmark service providers, assist with fiduciary oversight, and mitigate risk.

Establishing Law Firm Retirement Plans

Christine Crowe, administrative partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP, discusses the unique challenges that law firms face when designing and running a retirement plan.

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Please note: This is a transcription so there may be slight grammatical errors.

Christine Crowe (00:00):

Some of the unique challenges of sponsoring your own 401k plan in the legal industry are that you have a very diverse employee population in terms of not only age, but also financial resources and financial knowledge and investment knowledge.

(00:40):

We decided, when we were going to sponsor our own plan, to select and work with a 338 investment manager. We needed to do that because we are not experts in picking funds and in designing plans ourselves that would give our participants the appropriate diversification and the strong performing products that we wanted to be able to offer.

(01:06):

CAPTRUST’s extensive knowledge within the industry, both the legal industry as well as the larger 401k employer industry was incredibly helpful to us. We were able to assess, for each of the plan features we were considering, what was out there, what others in the industry were offering, and how we might better be able to serve our plan participants.

(01:30):

Immediately upon transition to our own plan, we saved $120,000 in record keeping costs. That’s money that goes right back into the individual accounts of our plan participants. Our participant rate increased by over 13%. The average size of participants accounts increased over 20%. The rate at which our participants are contributing grew over 130%, and our record keeping fees have decreased over 33%.

(02:02):

The fact that we now have designed our own plan with CAPTRUST’s guidance, and I know that it’s full of strong performing assets and assets that perform well among their peers, even during times of extreme market volatility, gives me great comfort to know that we’ve got a good product out there for our employees and all of our plan participants. Our plan is going to do well for people over the decades.

CapFinancial Partners, LLC (doing business as “CAPTRUST” or “CAPTRUST Financial Advisors”) is an Investment Adviser registered under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

However, CAPTRUST video presentations are designed to be educational and do not include individual investment advice. Opinions expressed in this video are subject to change without notice. Statistics and data have come from sources believed to be reliable but are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete. This is not a solicitation to Under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, this video is defined as an advertisement and includes an uncompensated testimonial by a CAPTRUST client. However, CAPTRUST pays for travel and accommodations for clients who have traveled to Raleigh, NC in order to participate in this video. Please be advised that clients’ experiences as described in the video do not necessarily represent the experience of other clients.

Under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, this video is defined as an advertisement and includes an uncompensated testimonial by a CAPTRUST client. However, CAPTRUST pays for travel and accommodations for clients who have traveled to Raleigh, NC in order to participate in this video. Please be advised that clients’ experiences as described in the video do not necessarily represent the experience of other clients. invest in any legal, medical, tax or accounting advice. If you require such advice, you should contact the appropriate legal, accounting, or tax advisor. All publication rights reserved. None of the material in this publication may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of CAPTRUST: 919.870.6822 © 2023 CAPTRUST Financial Advisors

Services for Law Firms

3(21) & 3(38) Services

Delivery of ERISA fiduciary risk management services for defined contribution retirement plans.

Actuarial Services

Provide consultative support on all aspects of your plan’s valuation and to meet all filing, certificate, and disclosure requirements.

Fee Benchmarking

Periodic assessment of the competitiveness or appropriateness of fees charged by investment managers.

Fiduciary Training

Periodic updates on retirement plan related issues and developments and best practices for retirement plan committee members. 

Glidepath Development & Monitoring

Creation and management of an age-based asset allocation strategy for retirement plan participants that becomes more conservative over time.

Investment Menu Design

Identification and structuring of appropriate investment options to be included in a defined contribution plan.

Investment Policy Development & Review

Assistance with the creation and execution of documents governing selection of plan investments and their ongoing monitoring.

Liability-Driven Investing

Development of investment strategies designed to fund future pension plan liabilities while managing risk.

Manager Search & Selection

Identification of investment managers fitting a particular profile for inclusion in a retirement plan’s investment menu.

Nonqualified Executive Benefits

Development of supplemental retirement savings plans to recruit, reward, and retain key employees.

OCIO

Discretionary portfolio management that includes asset allocation, plus ongoing investment selection and monitoring for a pension plan.

Pension Risk Transfer Consulting

Analysis and support for sponsors looking to offload pension plan risk via lump sum or annuity payments.

Performance Reporting & Monitoring

Quarterly assessment of investment manager or portfolio returns and risk relative to peer groups and indexes.

Plan Design Benchmarking

Analysis of key defined contribution plan features that drive costs, competitiveness, and employee retention.

Plan Financing & Security

Analysis and advice on the costs and benefits of investments offsetting nonqualified deferred compensation plan liabilities.

Recordkeeper Search

Process oversight and assistance with identifying and selecting a retirement plan recordkeeper.

Too many tasks? Not enough time?

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