With a remarkable quarter-century of experience, Roland|Criss has become a trusted ally for employers striving for excellence in their retirement and healthcare plans. Our service provider-neutral approach, combined with proactive risk management and continuous innovation, ensures that we meet regulatory demands and enhance plan performance while minimizing cybersecurity and vendor risks.
Avoid going it alone
Our managed services for fiduciaries are designed to help you navigate unprecedented operational, regulatory, and legal challenges, while also capitalizing on opportunities to improve your organization’s retirement and healthcare plans.
Boost your employee benefit plan risk culture more quickly and effectively with our specialized blend of cutting-edge talents, fiduciary management methodology, and industry knowledge. We have specialist skills across the range of employee benefit plans.
We align our information system capabilities with the rigorous data security standards required for the administration of retirement and healthcare plans. Our holistic strategy ensures that our clients benefit from a robust vendor tracking system that not only meets regulatory demands but also enhances operational efficiency and reduces risk exposure.
Our firm possesses deep expertise in designing and managing comprehensive risk management frameworks that integrate governance, administrative oversight, investment strategy, and control mechanisms, all in alignment with the fiduciary responsibilities entrusted to plan sponsors and trustees.
Our approach to risk advisory
We help employers manage the risks and administration burdens for retirement and healthcare plans, focusing on the need for efficiency and security through proactive oversight, comprehensive analysis, and continuous monitoring.
Retirement Plans
As an independent 3(16) plan administrator, we blend a comprehensive governance, risk management, and compliance framework with years of frontline experience to relieve clients of regulatory and legal risks, and maximize the performance of their plans’ service providers.
Investment Risk
By integrating with our GRC framework, our clients’ modernize their investment decision-making practices for their retirement and pension plans and align fees with the new pricing paradigm.
Third-Party Risk Management
We help clients select and monitor the vendors that serve their retirement, pension, healthcare, and welfare benefit plans by evaluating the quality of their services and the reasonableness of their fees.
Cybersecurity
We provide fiduciary committees with the risk assessments, procedures, and AI-enabled vendor monitoring they need to manage their role as the main guarantor of the security of benefit plan assets and data. Our assessments adhere to guidelines issued by the Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”) and standards published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”).
Payroll Reconciliation
We help clients avoid the threat payroll errors pose to the accuracy of their retirement plans through independent verification and reconciliation.
Healthcare Plan Compliance
Our fiduciary management framework for healthcare and welfare plans helps our clients comply with the Consolidated Appropriations Act and regulations enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Risk and Operations Resilience
Our comprehensive approach signifies a fundamental change in the way employee benefit plans achieve effectiveness.
Experience drives our capabilities
Our managed services deliver far more value than recordkeepers’ and benefit plan consultants’ faux fiduciary offerings. We enable your retirement and healthcare plan managers to accomplish their goals more quickly and with genuine assurance. Working together with you and your fiduciary committee, we leverage our people’s experience, skills, and enthusiasm to manage your duties from start to finish.
Extensive know-how underscores our managed services
Our wealth of experience enables us to provide managed services to employers that sponsor retirement and healthcare plans. Extensive task-oriented training and the expertise of some of the top industry minds allow us to offer tailored solutions that meet specific client needs. That enables us to understand the nuances and intricacies of fiduciary duties. The result? Our wide range of experience and expertise deliver exceptional advice and practical solutions to assist our clients in fulfilling their legal and ethical responsibilities.
Operations Managed Services
Our managed services offer a comprehensive solution to the challenges of overseeing retirement and healthcare plans.
Compliance & Risk
We help clients ensure they adhere to the process management duties defined in federal and state laws that govern fiduciaries.
GRC Framework
Our clients benefit from our advanced governance, risk managment and compliance (“GRC”) capabilities and management frameworks.
Industry Leadership
Our employee benefit plan clients reset their legal exposure with our thorough operations and compliance assessments, ensuring adherence to regulations and reducing potential risks effectively.
We excel in managing vendor searches for retirement plans through comprehensive RFP processes, leveraging our extensive industry knowledge to identify and engage the best providers.
We initiated this online forum to inform executives who oversee retirement, pension, and healthcare plans and to enable their collaboration. The Forum is a powerful skill development resource.
Get in touch
Reach out to us, and let’s talk.
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Operations Managed Services
Our managed services provide significant benefits to our clients by offering an umbrella that encompasses their duties as primary responsible fiduciaries. These services alleviate uncertainty, reduce burdens, and mitigate risks associated with overseeing employee benefit programs regulated by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”), the Consolidated Appropriations Act (“CAA”), and numerous federal and state cybersecurity laws.
Key Areas of Managed Services
Regular performance evaluations and audits ensure service providers meet their contractual obligations.
Ranking and Tracking Vendors’ Cybersecurity Capabilities:
Evaluating and monitoring vendors’ cybersecurity measures protect sensitive employee data.
Payroll and Plan Administration Operations:
As a comprehensive ERISA Section 3(16) fiduciary for retirement plans, we realign plan committee supervision with regulators’ guidance on best practices.
Conformance to Regulations:
Staying updated on legislative changes and conducting regular audits ensure compliance with relevant regulations.
Our managed services offer a comprehensive solution to the challenges of overseeing retirement and healthcare plans, enhancing efficiency, and ensuring compliance with relevant regulations.
Compliance and Risk
Regulatory compliance significantly impacts employers who sponsor retirement and healthcare plans by imposing legal and financial penalties for non-compliance, increasing litigation risks, adding administrative burdens, enforcing strict fiduciary responsibilities, enhancing employee trust and satisfaction, and raising operational costs.
Ensuring adherence to ERISA and the CAA are crucial for protecting employee benefits and avoiding potential legal and financial repercussions.
A Client’s Experience
Consider a manufacturing firm dealing with the impact of its 401(k) plan’s recordkeeper being acquired by another organization. To enhance its ability to assess service providers’ performance and data security, the plan’s fiduciary committee initiated a comprehensive overhaul of its governance, risk management, and compliance (“GRC”) program.
This effort led to substantial savings for plan participants, improved the quality of the communication program, minimized the exposure of the plan, the employer, and committee members to data security breaches, and assured the vendors’ fees were reasonable.
GRC Framework
Implementing a robust Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (“GRC”) framework is crucial for meeting ERISA’s fiduciary standards for retirement plans and complying with the fiduciary duty of healthcare plan sponsors under the CAA.
Key elements include the following:
- Governance: Establish clear policies and procedures aligned with ERISA requirements to ensure fiduciaries act in the best interest of plan participants.
- Risk Management: Identify, assess, and mitigate risks related to plan management, including service provider performance and data security.
- Compliance: Adhere to ERISA regulations through timely document distribution, accurate record-keeping, and regular audits.
Importance of a Risk Management Advisor
An independent risk management advisor, certified in GRC capabilities, an expert in the fiduciary disciplines, and an experienced vendor manager is essential in today’s complex litigation and regulatory environment. Their expertise helps navigate ERISA and CAA requirements, implement effective GRC practices, and ensure ongoing compliance, thereby reducing legal risks and enhancing plan integrity.
By embracing a comprehensive GRC framework, we can safeguard our plans, protect participants’ interests, and foster a culture of trust and accountability, positioning our organization for long-term success in managing employee benefits.
