Ben E. Keith Co., Forth Worth, Texas, hired Empower Retirement as provider of its new 401(k) plan and existing profit-sharing plan, said a letter to participants on the food and beverage distributor's website.
Employees under the age of 55 and employees over the age of 55 with only one year of service were enrolled in the new 401(k) plan on July 1 after the company froze its pension plan for these employees. Employees over 55 with at least one year of service are continuing to accrue pension benefits and are not eligible for the 401(k) plan. New employees will participate in the 401(k) plan. Eligible employees will automatically be enrolled at a 4% salary deferral rate, which will increase by 1 percentage point each year until employees reach a salary deferral rate of 10% or opt out. The company will match employee contributions dollar for dollar up to 4% of employees' pay.
As of June 30, 2017, the profit-sharing plan had $110 million in assets. Empower replaces John Hancock Retirement Plan Services as the plan's provider. The reason for the change could not immediately be learned.
As of the same date, the company's pension plan had $393 million in assets.
The new 401(k) plan features a suite of Vanguard Group target-date funds, four Vanguard index funds, and five actively managed funds run by T. Rowe Price Group, Goldman Sachs Group (stable value), MFS Investment Management, Aristotle Capital Management and an income fund run by a manager that was not listed.
A company spokeswoman could not immediately be reached for additional information.
