Defined Benefit Plan
When pension plan security and features meet your corporate objectives and participant needs
Defined Benefit pension plans continue to represent a viable retirement plan design for plan sponsors and participants in many industry and business sectors. With both traditional and hybrid plan designs, sponsors can attract and retain employees and provide a meaningful and cost effective retirement income benefit.
Whether your defined benefit plan is an active part of your overall benefit offering, is closed to new participants, or fully frozen, our service model allows us to assume responsibility for the many administrative tasks associated with the maintenance of a pension plan so you can tend to your core business challenges.
Your dedicated Bank of America Merrill Lynch team will include Participant Service Representatives with Series 7 and 66 licenses, Pension Analysts with ASPPA® designations, and Actuaries who are Associates and Fellows of the Society of Actuaries. This highly professional staff can:
- Provide you with a flexible and comprehensive array of investment, administrative, actuarial and trust services that can ease the burden of day-to-day plan management
- Offer efficient approaches to meeting emerging plan liabilities
- Help you manage overall risk
- Help participants gain a solid understanding and appreciation of their options and the value of the pension plan.
Pension risk, investment management and actuarial services
The connection between the actuarial assessment of future liabilities and the investment portfolio structure is critical to plan success. Our investment and actuarial capabilities allow for a connected view of emerging defined benefit plan costs and liabilities, with investment allocation strategies intended to help you normalize pension-funding costs.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch can provide your defined benefit plan with investment services in either an advisory model or a fully discretionary model. Your relationship manager, Merrill Lynch financial adviser and/or portfolio strategist will work with you, and any outside resources that you may select, to help develop the best investment strategy for your plan.*
Together, our Bank of America, N.A. investment team and research group can provide:
- Complete needs analysis
- Risk Posture assessments
- Plan liability analysis and modeling
- Asset allocation recommendations
- Investment Policy Statement Development
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- Economic analysis
- Market strategy
- Manager research and selection
- Performance measurement
- Portfolio monitoring
- Modeling and advice
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As part of our integrated service offering, we can provide your plan with complete actuarial consulting and annual support services through our partnership with Milliman*, one of the world's largest actuarial and benefits consulting firms.
* Milliman is not an affiliate of Bank of America Corporation.
Our integrated view of pension plan management
Administrative and recordkeeping services
Key functions include:
- Plan eligibility determination, participant welcome information and plan documentation
- Participant statements
- Employee enrollment and contributions
- Required Minimum Distribution tracking and processing
- Vesting determination
- Beneficiary maintenance
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- Terminated, disabled, pre-retirement deceased participant benefit processing
- Benefit elections processing
- Participant initiated retirement request execution
- Normal retirement notifications and election processing for terminated vested participants
- Complete retiree payroll maintenance
- QDRO execution
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We will establish a comprehensive database of historical participant data and maintain it through ongoing payroll updates.
Participant access and assistance
When you outsource defined benefit plan administrative services, recordkeeping and participant services to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, your participants will enjoy virtually 24/7 secure access to account information, planning tools and modeling, as well as plan documents and forms through our award-winning Benefits Online® website.
When your participants prefer to reach us by phone, our highly trained telephone specialists at our Retirement & Benefits Contact Center are ready to help.
Services include:
| Benefits OnLine web site |
Retirement & Benefits Contact Center |
- Obtain information about plan provisions and procedures
- Model an unlimited number of benefit calculation scenarios
- Access plan documents and forms
- Initiate the retirement payment process
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- Inquire about plan provisions and procedures
- Request benefit estimate calculations
- Initiate retirement payments
- Access plan documents and forms
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*Bank of America, N.A. will act as a fiduciary in providing investment services and will manage plan assets consistent with the duties and standards established under ERISA, including its oversight of any third-party investment managers. Merrill Lynch and its representatives do not provide investment advice with regard to defined benefit plans where Bank of America, N.A. is a fiduciary.