ERISA 3(16) Services

Retirement planning that benefits everyone

Benefits Made Simple

Meeting your clients' plan objectives and keeping their employees informed has never been this easy. Whether it’s due diligence, ERISA compliance or monitoring investments, let us handle the dirty work.

Streamline Your Clients' Plan Administration

When you choose our 3(16) Plan administrator services, you cut out the middleman. We step in as your Plan’s ERISA 3(16) fiduciary, so there’s no need to outsource a third party. 

“They are experts in the business. We rely on them so we don’t have to hire in-house attorneys and monitor benefits and monitor the changing legislation.”

– Gary Bernard, Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer, TruWest Credit Union

FAQs

The Plan Administrator is a statutory plan fiduciary and is ultimately responsible for running the ERISA qualified plan. As the Plan Administrator and a fiduciary, Sentinel will be held fully and personally accountable for plan management.

  • Plan eligibility management
  • Contribution allocation
  • Vesting
  • Determine qualified domestic relations order requests
  • Benefit distributions
  • Determine loan eligibility and hardship withdrawal eligibility

We offer the following to make employee enrollment easy and keep your benefit package transparent:


  • Employee Enrollment Kits (including retirement education guide)
  • Plan highlights and expenses
  • Beneficiary Form
  • Participant Rollover Form

In order for Sentinel to accept responsibility as a 3(16) Plan Administrator, you must satisfy the following conditions:


  • Sentinel must serve as the plan’s recordkeeper
  • Retirement plan advisor must serve as the plan’s investment advisor in either an ERISA 3(21) or 3(38) capacity
  • Plan Sponsor must identify which employees may receive required notices electronically and which must receive notices by mail
  • Plan Sponsor must satisfy a due diligence audit performed by Sentinel.
  1. Sentinel must review client’s current Plan Documents and related employers to be certain they are in good order with no compliance issues 
  2. Sentinel must review client’s existing plan operations procedures to determine if operational performance aligns with terms of the Plan Document
  3. Client must demonstrate they have strong controls in place to manage employee information and transfer data timely and accurately 
  4. Client must demonstrate an understanding of their role and responsibility as the appointing fiduciary

Take the Next Step.

Contact our Advisor Channel Consulting Team to see just how Sentinel can help you, your clients and their participants. 

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