An Incumbent Review is a process that assesses the competitiveness of current service providers against market standards, avoiding the need for an RFP process and preserving existing vendor relationships. It involves soliciting updated proposals from existing vendors, analyzing them, and benchmarking against market trends. This ensures that service fees and offerings remain competitive without jeopardizing established partnerships. The process concludes with a fiduciary opinion provided to the Board, ensuring the best results for employers, employees, and management in terms of service quality and fiduciary practices.
What is an Incumbent Review?
Understanding the Incumbent Review℠ Process
Our incumbent review process is a comprehensive evaluation of your current vendors, enabling you to assess their performance against robust market data. It’s about achieving the most appropriate services for the most competitive fees, all with minimal internal resource consumption and without straining existing relationships.
Why Run a CoFi Incumbent Review?
Leverage CoFi's expertise for an optimized incumbent review process that satisfies applicable fiduciary standards and ensures your vendors are delivering the best value.
-
Vendor Preference: Balances the employer’s preference to preserve existing vendor relationships with the ERISA requirement to ensure competitive pricing for the services received.
-
We Manage the Whole Process: After the needs analysis is performed, CoFi interacts directly with the candidates, minimizing internal resource consumption for the employer.
-
Cost Flexibility: Our fee can be paid by the incumbent, the plan, or the employer.
-
Data-Driven, Expert-Driven Analysis: Rather than competing against other vendor candidates, the incumbent competes against the market based on our robust market data. CoFi ensures that the employer is getting the types and degrees of assistance that the employer needs and that are typical in the marketplace.
-
Independent Fiduciary Compliance: CoFi, acting as co-fiduciary, issues a fiduciary opinion of compliance with ERISA and best practices of service proposals.
-
Best Terms & Conditions: CoFi ensures that contractual protections to the employer are maximized.
Our Incumbent Review Process At A Glance
CoFi’s Incumbent Review process starts from a detailed needs analysis, progressing towards a data-driven review, and concludes with an expert-driven analysis, ensuring your existing vendor relationships are performing to their full potential. With independent fiduciary compliance and flexible cost structure, we facilitate a seamless and effective incumbent review journey.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions About the Incumbent Review℠ Process
What if my incumbent vendor fails the Incumbent ReviewSM?
If your incumbent vendor fails the Incumbent ReviewSM and is unwilling to reduce fees, you should proceed to an RFP.
Should I have a lawyer assist with an Incumbent ReviewSM?
We recommend that your ERISA attorney, if you have one, should be involved in the Incumbent ReviewSM process. We do not require the involvement of a lawyer if an employer wishes to proceed without one.
Does an Incumbent ReviewSM satisfy your fiduciary duty?
Conventional wisdom has held for many years that you must perform a request for proposal on all medical and retirement plan vendors every 3 to 5 years in order to satisfy your fiduciary responsibilities under ERISA. This is not so. As long as you document a thorough analysis of your vendors’ continued competitiveness in terms of services provided and fees charged, an RFP is not necessary. The Incumbent ReviewSM is designed to satisfy your fiduciary obligations without the cost, time and potential relationship disruption of a full-blown RFP. Our process almost always results in lower fees and more/additional services.
Are there cost-free solutions available?
Cofi can employ techniques to make our services cost-free to the employer. The incumbent provider often pays for the service. Also, because our fee is a fiduciary expense, it can also always be paid from plan assets.
What types of internal resources will an Incumbent ReviewSM require from my staff?
A Cofi Incumbent ReviewSM is designed to significantly limit your engagement throughout the process. Aside from an hour for the initial employer needs analysis and a meeting to discuss the results of the review, employer involvement is not required. Our process is completely transparent, and you may see and participate in as much of the process as you wish. However, there is virtually no employer involvement in our process. The employer may participate as much as desired, but more than this is not necessary.
How long does the Incumbent ReviewSM process take?
The length of the process varies depending on a number of factors: complexity of the plan, size of plan, etc. On average, an Incumbent ReviewSM takes 30-60 days.
How much does a Cofi Incumbent ReviewSM cost?
It depends very much on a number of factors: e.g., type of plan, number of vendors, complexity of the plan, size of plan, etc. Cofi will provide a flat fee or hourly pricing on request.
Start Your Journey Toward Effective Benefit Plan Provider Selection Today
Ready to unlock the full potential of your existing vendor relationships? Get in touch with Cofi today to start your Incumbent Review℠.
Contact Us
Have questions or need assistance? Get in touch with our team. Use our contact page to find our contact information, including phone number and email address. We're here to provide support and answer any inquiries you may have.