REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS No. 2016-007 PROFIT SHARE PLAN FIDUCIARY & EMPLOYEE ADVISORY CONSULTANT Issued: December 16, 2016 RFP No. 2016-007 PROFIT SHARE PLAN FIDUCIARY & EMPLOYEE ADVISORY CONSULTANT 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Section 1. Summary and General Information 2. Section 2. Proposal Specifications 3. Section 3. Questionnaire 4. Section 4. Statement of Qualifications 5. Section 5. Pricing 6. Section 6. General Requirements 7. Letter of Transmittal, complete and return with Proposal RFP No. 2016-007 PROFIT SHARE PLAN FIDUCIARY & EMPLOYEE ADVISORY CONSULTANT 2
SECTION 1. Summary and General Information 1. Summary Inspire Development Centers (IDC) is currently seeking proposals from qualified licensed consultants to provide profit share plan fiduciary and advisory services on investments, communication and education to IDC employees for the agency s 401(k) Profit Sharing Retirement Plan. IDC is requiring a minimum of 5 competitive proposals to close this solicitation. If an inadequate number of proposals are received by the proposal deadline, the solicitation efforts and deadline will be extended an additional period of time. 2. Background IDC was incorporated as a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization on July 18, 1983. Our primary activity is to provide effective child care, educational health, and nutritional services to children of migrant and seasonal farm workers and rural poor families in the state of Washington. IDC receives its funds from federal and state grants. The agency currently operates 27 child development centers throughout the state and a corporate and program offices which are centrally located in Sunnyside, WA. IDC has approximately 1,100 employees, depending on the agricultural cycle. 3. Proposal Deadline All proposals will be noted and stamped by time and date of submission. All vendors responding to this solicitation shall have until 4:00 PM PACIFIC STANDARD TIME ON TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2017, to submit a fully completed proposal package. Proposals received after this deadline will not be accepted. 4. Submission Requirements All proposals must remain valid for acceptance for six (6) months past the proposal submission date. The proposal must be submitted in the legal name of the organization; the proposal should not be submitted in the name of the project. All statements made in the proposal will be considered final, and, if the proposal is accepted it will be used as the basis of the purchase agreement. Offerors shall provide one (1) original and four (4) identical copies of proposals and (1) copy of supporting documentation. All proposals must be placed in a sealed envelope marked Proposal for RFP#2016-007 Profit Share Plan Fiduciary and Employee Advisory Consultant on the front of the envelope and submitted to: Inspire Development Centers, Purchasing Department 105 B South 6 th Street, Sunnyside, WA 98944 5. Electronic Submission Proposals can be submitted electronically to the following email address: procurement@inspire-centers.org by the closing submission date noted above. Proposal for RFP#2016-007 Profit Share Plan Fiduciary and Employee Advisory Consultant MUST be stated in the subject line. 6. Conditions of Proposal All costs incurred in the preparation of a proposal responding to this RFP will be the responsibility of the Offeror and will not be reimbursed by Inspire Development Centers. 7. Important Dates Deadline to Submit Questions RFP Response Due Date January 3, 2017, 5 PM PST January 31, 2017 4PM PST RFP No. 2016-007 PROFIT SHARE PLAN FIDUCIARY & EMPLOYEE ADVISORY CONSULTANT 3
Award and Contract (reasonable estimation) 30-45 Days after RFP has closed 8. Contact Information Questions and inquiries MUST be submitted in written format and submitted via email to procurement@inspirecenters.org. Q & A for RFP#2016-007 Profit Share Plan Fiduciary and Employee Advisory Consultant MUST be stated in subject line. 9. Term of the Contract IDC would like to award this contract for a twelve (12) month period with the option to extend this contract up to 3 years before seeking re-competition. SECTION 2. Proposal Specifications IDC is currently seeking proposals from qualified consultants to provide advisory services on investments, communication and education to IDC employees for the agency s 401(k) Profit Sharing Retirement Plan. Provider must be a licensed financial advisor with vast knowledge of profit share plans. 1. Scope of Services a. Fiduciary Services b. Participant Level Services c. Investment Services 2. Agency Plan Information a. Plan Type: IDC s Profit Sharing Plan currently offers Vanguard target date funds with four strategic allocation series and the option for participants to customize their portfolio. Additionally, there are other funds available for the participants to choose from. Participants are not sophisticated investors. Plan Effective Date: 1985 Total Plan Assets: $13.2 million Plan Participants: 865 b. Employee Demographics: Number of Eligible Employees: Month of January 450, Month of July - 1,100 Average age of employees: 40.5 Safe Harbor Plan Yes 3. Service Locations IDC maintains staffed facilities in multiple locations throughout Washington State, including: Basin City, Burlington, College Place, Connell, George, Grandview, Granger, Harrah, Lynden, Mabton, Malott, Mattawa, Moses Lake, Mt Vernon, Othello, Pasco, Prosser, Quincy, Royal City, Sunnyside, Toppenish, Wapato, Warden and Whitstran. RFP No. 2016-007 PROFIT SHARE PLAN FIDUCIARY & EMPLOYEE ADVISORY CONSULTANT 4
SECTION 3. Questionnaire Response to this solicitation should address, at a minimum, the following items: 1. Employee Education and Communication a. Describe your procedures for contacting new participants, informing them of their plan investment choices and assisting them in choosing the appropriate investment. b. Are you available to visit all the locations and meet with all newly eligible employees and any employee that has questions during Open Enrollment periods? Can you conduct the meetings in Spanish? c. Describe your ability to provide Investment Seminars? Can the seminars be presented in Spanish? d. Describe your procedure for answering participant questions on an ongoing basis. e. Describe your procedures for communicating financial performance information to participant. Particularly, what reports are available for participants, the frequency they may be available, and what comparative information is included. Can you provide monthly and/or quarterly reports? Can you provide employee communication material? Are they offered in Spanish? f. Describe your ability to conduct employee meetings to review plan choices and performance in a bilingual (Spanish) community. g. Describe your ability to conduct one-on-one meetings with participants? Can this be conducted in Spanish? h. Would you be available to help choose a Third Party Administrator if you are awarded the RFP? i. Do you have the expertise to help develop the bylaws, guidelines and the make-up of the 401K committee for IDC? 2. Management and Trustee Communication a. Describe periodic reports available to IDC s Investment Committee recapitulating financial performance of plan investments. b. Define how often you meet with your client decision makers in calendar year. c. Describe a typical meeting held with IDC s Investment Committee. d. Are you available to meet with IDC s Investment Committee quarterly to review plan performance? e. Do you maintain an evaluation tool/methodology to evaluate investment portfolios and advise management? Please describe. f. Are you consistently monitoring the investment marketplace so that management and the Trustees can be timely informed of significant changes that might cause a change in investments offered to plan participants? Please describe. g. Do you offer ERISA Section 3(21) fiduciary services? Please explain. h. Do you offer ERISA Section 3(38) fiduciary services? Please explain. i. Do you share liability as a Co-Fiduciary? If so, please define and describe your role as Co-Fiduciary. RFP No. 2016-007 PROFIT SHARE PLAN FIDUCIARY & EMPLOYEE ADVISORY CONSULTANT 5
3. Investment Services a. Describe the process used to evaluate the fund offerings that are currently offered in IDC s Plan. b. Under what circumstances would you recommend that IDC change an investment offering? Describe the process. c. What Recordkeeper(s) do you contract with and how do you determine which to recommend. d. List your top Recordkeepers in terms of assets and in terms of the number of Plans. e. What Third Party Administrators (TPAs) do you work with? How do you determine which to recommend. f. Do you provide an investment policy? g. How is the Monitoring and Analysis completed? 4. Security and Quality Assurance a. Describe any service guarantees you can provide. b. Describe the errors and omissions/professional liability insurance coverage you carry. SECTION 4. Statement of Qualifications Minimum Qualifications: Potential Contractors must have a minimum of 10 current customers with managing plan assets over 10 million, at least 5 customers that are non-profit and provide services for the selection and vetting process for their customer s TPA and recordkeeper services. Potential Contractor s proposal MUST clearly identify their ability to meet these minimum qualifications. 1. General/Services a. Provide a detailed overview of your firm and team you are proposing to serve IDC. b. Identify if you provide Defined Contribution (DC) Consulting Services, if so, how long you have provided these services and how many clients are you serving currently. c. Describe the professional background and qualifications of the individuals who would be assigned to this account. d. Identify how many assets you have under management. e. Identify who your Broker Dealer is and why were they selected. f. Identify any subcontractors to be used and what services they would provide. g. Please include one current client reference with plans assets are over 10 million and one non-profit client reference (including name, title, and telephone number). SECTION 5. Pricing 1. Please provide a detail listing of your fees. Be sure to distinguish fixed annual fees from those based on a; per transaction, per employee, or per occurrence basis. At a minimum, please address the following: a. Cost for management reports. b. Cost for consulting services. c. Cost for providing bilingual meeting and participant material. RFP No. 2016-007 PROFIT SHARE PLAN FIDUCIARY & EMPLOYEE ADVISORY CONSULTANT 6
SECTION 6. General Requirements This procurement will be conducted in accordance with the Inspire Development Center s Procurement Policies and Procedures, OMB Circulars and applicable grant regulations. The proposals will be kept confidential. Inspire is a private non-profit organization which adheres to its internal control policies and procedures. It is not the practice of Inspire Development Centers to disclose bids/proposals submitted in response to requests which may or may not infringe upon confidential business practices of individual businesses. 1. Non-Responsive Proposals Proposals may be judged non-responsive and removed from further consideration if any of the following occur; the proposal is not received timely in accordance with the terms of this RFP and/or the Proposal does not follow the specified format. 2. Contract Award Professional services will be evaluated and selected based on experience, qualifications, knowledge, ability, cost and references. 3. Review Process In compliance with Uniform Guidance 2 CFR Part 200.319 Competition, Inspire Development Centers has conducted this procurement in a manner that prohibits the use of statutorily or administratively imposed state or local geographical preferences in the evaluation of bids or proposals, except in those cases where applicable federal statutes expressly mandate or encourage geographic preference. The Inspire Development Centers may, at its discretion, request presentations by or meetings with any or all Offerors to clarify or negotiate modifications to the Offerors proposals. However, Inspire Development Centers reserves the right to make an award without further discussion of the proposals submitted. Therefore, proposals should be submitted initially on the most favorable terms, from both technical and price standpoints, that the Offeror can propose. Inspire Development Centers contemplates award of the contract to the responsible Offeror with the highest total points 4. Preference Preference (not priority) is given to the following types of vendors, providing this involves no sacrifice in quality, service, or price; Vendors historically underutilized (small, minority, and/or women owned business); Vendors, to the extent practical and economically feasible, that provide products and services that conserve natural resources, protect the environment and are energy efficient; Vendors, to the extent practical and economically feasible, that provide products and services dimensioned in the metric system. 5. Certifications On behalf of the Offeror. a. The individual signing certifies that he/she is authorized on behalf of the Offeror. b. The individual signing certifies that the Offeror is not involved in any agreement to pay money or other consideration for the execution of this agreement, other than to an employee of the Offeror. c. The individual signing certifies that the prices in this proposal have been arrived at independently, without consultation, communication, or agreement, for the purpose of restricting competition. d. The individual signing certifies that the prices quoted in this proposal have not been knowingly disclosed by the Offeror prior to an award to any other Offeror or potential Offeror. RFP No. 2016-007 PROFIT SHARE PLAN FIDUCIARY & EMPLOYEE ADVISORY CONSULTANT 7
e. The individual signing certifies that there has been no attempt by the Offeror to discourage any potential Offeror from submitting a proposal. 6. Laws and Regulations The prospective contractor must be licensed in the State and Community for which they are proposing to provide services. The prospective contractor is assumed to be familiar with all Federal, State, County and City laws, codes, and regulations which in any manner affect those engaged or employed in the work, or the materials and equipment used in the proposed services or which in any way affect the conduct of work, and no pleas of misunderstanding will be considered on account of ignorance thereof. 7. Interpretation of Proposal Documents Prospective contractor s contemplating submitting proposals who are in doubt as to the true meaning of any part of the proposal documents, or find discrepancies in or omissions from this proposal document shall submit to Inspire Development Centers in a written request for an interpretation or correction thereof. Such requests shall be submitted and received not later than seven (7) days prior to the date specified as the deadline to submit. Any interpretation or correction of the proposal documents will be made in writing by addendum duly posted on the Inspire website. Inspire will not be responsible for any other explanation or interpretation of the proposal documents. 8. Rejection of Proposals Inspire Development Centers reserves the right to reject any proposal which omits any one or more items for which proposals are required; any proposal which omits prices; or any proposal, that in the opinion of Inspire Development Centers, does not meet the special requirements specified in this Request for Proposals. Inspire, at its sole discretion, reserves the right to reject any or all proposals at any time prior to the execution of a contract at no penalty. 9. Ownership of Proposals All proposals and accompanying documentation become the property of Inspire Development Centers and will not be returned. RFP No. 2016-007 PROFIT SHARE PLAN FIDUCIARY & EMPLOYEE ADVISORY CONSULTANT 8
Letter of Transmittal - Please complete and attach this page to the proposal. Company Name: Address: Phone: Fax: Name, title, and email address of the person authorized by the organization to; contractually obligate the organization, negotiate on behalf of the organization, and to provide clarification to the bid response. Name: Title: Email Address: Certification regarding Debarment, Suspension, Ineligibility and Voluntary Exclusion- By responding to this RFP, you are hereby certifying neither the contractor or the contracting agency have been suspended or in any way excluded from Federal procurement actions by any Federal agency and fully understand that, if information contrary to this certification subsequently becomes available, such evidence may be grounds for non-award or nullification of a bid award. Authorized Signature: Date: This certification is required by the regulations implementing Executive Order 12549, Debarment and Suspension, Participant s Responsibilities If applicable, provide certification of minority-owned or women-owned business. RFP No. 2016-007 PROFIT SHARE PLAN FIDUCIARY & EMPLOYEE ADVISORY CONSULTANT 9