SAN FRANCISCO -- Six vendors have retained McHenry Consulting Group to conduct a study on the extent to which sponsors are considering integrating benefit programs.
The Cross Plan Integration Study was commissioned by The Western United States Benefits Study Group, whose members are PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP; CIGNA Retirement and Investment Services; Diversified Investment Advisors; Union Bank of California NA; The 401K Wire.com; and Tasker Cooper Smith/Zenith Group.
The study will reveal to what extent both qualified and non-qualified plan sponsors are considering integrating benefit programs to reduce their administrative burden, reduce costs and provide better service to their employees, according to a McHenry release.
"There is information in the marketplace that leads us to the conclusion that a certain percentage of investors are looking for a common vendor," said Ward Harris, managing director of the San Francisco-based consultant.
Most of the vendors involved plan to use the survey to help them restructure programs that will benefit future clients.
The core areas of the survey are trustee/custody, investment, record keeping/administration, communications and education support.
"Part of the service is for defined benefit and 401(k) plans. Our clients are midlevel companies," said Rick Tasker president of Tasker Cooper Smith/Zenith Group. "This survey seemed to target these companies."
McHenry sent letters and postcards and called more than 1,200 corporate plan sponsors asking them to participate in the survey.
Only Western states were invited because McHenry knows that market best, Mr. Harris said. The consultant plans eventually to conduct similar studies in other regions of the country.
The Web-based survey covers topics such as defined benefit/defined contribution decision-making functions, vendor satisfaction levels, integration of defined benefit and defined contribution plans and efficiencies achieved through integration.
Phil Waldeck, regional vice president of CIGNA Retirement and Investment Services, Hartford, Conn., believes the Web-based format will be effective because, unlike a phone survey, sponsors can answer questions when they choose to. In addition to conducting the survey, McHenry will serve as a "Chinese Wall" between plan sponsors' comments and the vendors that have funded the research.
"The survey will give us more information about the midmarket and what their interests are," said Phil Conroy, who is a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, New York. "And there will be no hard selling."
McHenry will protect the sponsors' confidentiality.
"Summaries of the results will be going to the participants of the survey," Mr. Harris said.
The vendors sponsoring the survey "will get more detailed information but not the names of the participants."
