Page 140 - DCAC May 2023 Files

NAGDCA Leadership Award Submission: Plan Design & Administration

Plan Profile
• Types of plans offered: 401(a), 457(b), 401(a) OBRA and 457(b) OBRA
• Total assets in the retirement plans as of December 31, 2022: $647,637,657
• Total participants in the retirement plans as of December 31, 2022: 19,546
• Recordkeeper is Empower; Consultant is Innovest

Background

The County of San Mateo’s Deferred Compensation Advisory Committee (DCAC) established a day-long
“participant focused” annual retreat dedicated to reviewing various plan metrics, plan design, results of
the annual participant survey as well as regulatory changes and other considerations that would help
our plan participants.

The DCAC retreat is a collaborative process which includes committee members, HR Benefits, Empower
and our newly hired investment consultant, Innovest. All stakeholders work together to analyze various
plan metrics, develop goals, strategies, and initiatives to improve the plan for participants.

In 2022, one initiative from the annual retreat was to implement a comprehensive investment menu
evaluation to help streamline participant choices and offer savings to participants investment
management expenses.

Goal
There was a strong focus by DCAC and all stakeholders on structural improvements that could be made
on the investment menu. This evaluation was conducted so participants could ultimately:
 Select from a competitive range of investment choices.
 Select from a streamlined investment menu to simplify their investment decisions.
 Have access to lower cost investment options with the intention of increased investment
returns.

In their own words

“Simplifying the fund line-up resulted in a decrease in the number of investment options from 26 to 19,
representing a 27% decrease. However, this also resulted in an overall cost reduction for plan participants of
7.5% and decreasing the weighted investment management expense by 0.02% for the entire core line-up.”

Kim Pearson
Employee Benefits Manager- Human Resources Department