Proactively addressing your investment needs

In an increasingly complex and litigious world, retirement plan sponsors need to effectively manage costs, reduce fiduciary liability and improve the retirement readiness of their employees now more than ever. Of all the responsibilities a retirement committee manages, investment oversight is a top priority.

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If you’ve asked the above questions, you are not alone. You don’t have to be an investment expert. You don’t have to shoulder all the responsibility for investment decisions.

Optimizing the value of your retirement plan

USI Consulting Group (USICG) is committed to providing investment consulting services to retirement plan sponsors through USI Advisors, Inc. (USIA), a privately owned Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registered investment advisory firm. At USIA, our highly qualified team of investment experts provides independent and comprehensive guidance empowering employers to meet their fiduciary responsibilities, investment and business goals.

Scale, scope and expertise

Unlike many traditional advisors or financial planners, USIA’s scale, scope and expertise provide our clients with the flexibility and confidence to use USIA either as a direct solution for stand-alone investment services or in combination with other USICG and third-party consulting services. More importantly, we don’t build, manage or distribute proprietary investment products. Hence, we are free of any conflicts of interests and don’t compete with asset managers, allowing us to provide unbiased advice. USIA’s non-proprietary, institutional approach leverages access to a wealth of industry knowledge and expertise across different areas of plan management (defined contribution, defined benefit, nonqualified, legal and compliance) to best meet the needs of our clients.

Each USIA client is assigned a dedicated Investment Consultant that will meet with you on a regular basis to provide ongoing fiduciary support across all aspects of retirement plan management.

Investment advisory for defined benefit (DB) pension plans

Learn more about our investment advisory services for pension plans and how we can help make sure they align with your business objectives.

Investment advisory for defined contribution (DC) plans

Learn more about our investment advisory services for DC plans, including 401(k), 403(b), 457, money purchase and profit-sharing.

Create and monitor a well-diversified investment menu

The decision to offer a retirement plan to employees can be a beneficial, and daunting, task for employers. Understanding the responsibilities and code of conduct established by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) is an important step to ensuring plan sponsors are fulfilling fiduciary obligations.

One of the core fiduciary responsibilities is the selection and monitoring of investment options offered within the plan. To assist fiduciaries in fulfilling this obligation, USICG has developed a well-defined, repeatable, investment monitoring process, which thoroughly evaluates investments on both a quantitative and qualitative basis. Our 5P Process for manager selection & due diligence uncovers factors not seen be a purely quantitative approach, such as a shift in culture at the firm, a pending manager departure or a change in supporting resources.

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USICG's Michael Welz speaks to PLANSPONSOR on plan investments

USI Advisors’ President & Chief Investment Officer, Michael Welz, recently spoke with PLANSPONSOR to weigh in on Essential Considerations for DC Plan Investment Lineups. “Over the last 10 years, if we asked clients ‘What is the purpose of your plan?’ in 99% of cases, it would be ‘to help participants grow assets,’” Welz said. “It’s only been in the last few years that decumulation has become a purpose.” 
Read the full article here.

cm-icon.png  Fee benchmarking

cm-icon.png  Fiduciary training & support

cm-icon.png   Periodic retirement service provider searches

cm-icon.png  Plan design consulting services

cm-icon.png   Plan operations & compliance oversight

Our Privacy Promise to You
USI Advisors Inc. (USIA) provides this notice to you, our customer, so that you will know what we will do with the personal information, (including but not limited to Social Security numbers), personal financial and health information (collectively referred to as the "protected information") that we may receive from you directly or receive from another source that you have authorized to send us your protected information. We at USIA are concerned about your privacy and assure you that we will do what is required of us to safeguard your protected information.

What types of information will we be collecting?
USIA collects information from you required both for our business and pursuant to regulatory requirements. Without it, we cannot provide our products and services for you. We will be collecting protected information about you from:

  • Applications or other forms, such as name, address, Social Security number, assets and income, employment status and dependent information.
  • Your transactions with us or your transactions with others, such as account activity, payment history, and products and services purchased.
  • Consumer reporting agencies, such as credit relationships and credit history. These agencies may retain their reports and share them with others who use their services.
  • Other individuals, businesses and agencies, such as medical and demographic information.
  • Visitors to our websites, such as information from on-line forms, site visitorship data and on-line information collection devices, commonly called "cookies".

What will we do with your protected information?
The information USIA gathers is shared within our company to help us maximize the services we can provide to our customers. We will only disclose your protected information as is necessary for us to provide the insurance products and services you expect from us. USIA does not sell your protected information to third parties, nor does it sell or share customer lists.

We may also disclose all of the information described above to third parties with which we contract for services. In addition, we may disclose your protected information to medical care institutions or medical professionals, insurance regulatory authorities, law enforcement or other government authorities, or to affiliated or nonaffiliated third parties as is reasonably necessary to conduct our business or as otherwise permitted by law.


Our Security Procedures
At USIA, we have put in place the highest measures to ensure the security and confidentiality of customer information. We will handle the protected information we receive by restricting access to the protected information about you to those employees and agents of ours who need to know that information to provide you with our products or services or to otherwise conduct our business, including actuarial or research studies. Our computer database has multiple levels of security to protect against threats or hazards to the integrity of customer records, and to protect against unauthorized access to records that may harm or inconvenience our customers. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal and state regulations to safeguard all of your protected information, especially Social Security numbers. Specifically, we protect the confidentiality of Social Security numbers, prohibit unlawful disclosure of Social Security numbers and limit access to Social Security numbers.

Our Privacy Promise to You
USIA provides this notice to you, our customer, so that you will know what we will do with the personal information, personal financial and health information (collectively referred to as the "protected information") that we may receive from you directly or receive from your health care provider or receive from another source that you have authorized to send us your protected information. We at USIA are concerned about your privacy and assure you that we will do what is required of us to safeguard your protected information.

Our Legal Use of Information
We retain the right to use ideas, concepts, know-how, or techniques contained in any nonpublic personal information you provide to us for our own purposes, including developing and marketing products and services.

Your Right to Review Your Records
You have the right to review the protected information about you relating to any insurance or annuity product issued by us that we could reasonably locate and retrieve.

Investment advice provided to the Plan by USI Advisors, Inc. Under certain arrangements, securities offered to the Plan through USI Securities, Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC. Both USI Advisors, Inc. and USI Securities, Inc. are affiliates of USI Consulting Group. | 1023.S0227.0017