Tidepool is the ERISA 402(a) named fiduciary of the Tidepool Consolidated 401(k) Plan. This means we are the plan sponsor and administrator, responsible for the entire pooled plan. But plan operations are carried out through close coordination and integration with various specialists. We achieve high performance through close integration with our business partners, including:
RECORDKEEPER & TPA
Vestwell is our exclusive recordkeeper and third-party administrator for all Tidepool plans. Vestwell provides a state of the art recordkeeping platform providing the underlying infrastructure to power workplace savings programs, leading with the 401(k), at scale. Vestwell helps people more easily offer, administer, and access workplace investing programs by partnering with financial institutions, RIAs, asset managers, insurance providers, and the like, to provide the benefits of running their own modern-day recordkeeper without the investment of building and managing one.
3(38) INVESTMENT MANAGER
LeafHouse Financial provides ERISA 3(38) and 3(21) discretionary investment services and create packaged solutions to mitigate risk to meet a retirement plan’s unique needs. LeafHouse grades and monitors each investment option in a portfolio lineup according to the LeafHouse Grade Point Average® algorithm–a comprehensive process for the prudent evaluation, selection, and monitoring of investments. The objective is to deliver a defined investment methodology to retirement plan sponsors for fulfilling their fiduciary duties.
LeafHouse gathers financial information and data from a multitude of research sources and investment managers that produce reports. Its team uses proprietary software to review over 150,000 asset classes a quarter.
All decisions are executed in the best interests of the participants.
TRUSTEE & CUSTODIAN
Matrix Trust Company provides automated trust, custody and agent services for Qualified and Non-Qualified Retirement Plans. Matrix Trust Company is a Colorado state-chartered trust company. With over 50 years of trust experience on its management team, its roots are planted firmly in the financial services market. It aggregates, reconciles and processes trust and custodial transactional data in a highly automated environment. Matrix Trust Company retains an independent, certified public accounting firm to SSAE18 internal audits of its procedures and controls.
SOFTWARE TOOLS PROVIDER
Broadridge fi360 is the leading software provide for use by pension administrators, investment managers and other fiduciaries. Its Fiduciary Focus Toolkit empowers firms to enact guardrails and monitor advisor activity against prudent investment practices. Its additional software tools include Fi360 Stable Value Vision and Fee Benchmarker. By deploying these software tools, Tidepool double-checks its work and investment lineup recommendations.
ETF CONSULTANT
WisdomTree, our non-fiduciary ETF consultant for model portfolios, combines identified behavioral preferences, financial goals and their current portfolio holdings to provide tailored Model Portfolio suggestions. Its toolset offers the unique ability to keep portions of a current portfolio intact, while blending in different percentages of ETF models. The new models are then reviewed and scored by LeafHouse and offered as part of updated investment lineup options.
408(g) PARTICIPANT SUBADVISORS
ERISA section 408(g) allows Tidepool to enter sub-advisory arrangements with with registered investment advisors with respect to specifically-identified participants and beneficiaries under the Plan. This means that when Tidepool takes over administration of an existing plan, its former investment advisors may also continue as 408(g) advisors to the the existing plan under an sub-advisory arrangement with Tidepool, subject to the overall fiduciary guidance of our 3(38) investment manager, LeafHouse Financial.
The goal is to take advantage of best thinking from numerous advisors and set up a process for participants to widen their investing options, while being assured that each option has passed the LeafHouse 3(38) scrutiny.
