Delegated solutions

What if you had more time to focus on the strategic issues of your business while improving participant performance and mitigating your risks? Delegated solutions may be the answer.
  • $44 billion
    In U.S. delegated defined contribution assets under management1
  • 96%
    Growth of delegated U.S. retirement assets within the past 5 years2
  • Cost
    Efficiencies are one of the top reasons plan sponsors pursued delegation in 20173

Improving participant outcomes

Over the past few years, delegation has grown significantly among plan sponsors — and for good reason. As a plan sponsor, you may have limited time and resources to keep up with the demands and challenges of a complex marketplace, the latest investments trends, or management of regulatory filings and administrative burdens — to say nothing of heightened scrutiny by your participants.

Beyond advice, we can implement our investment ideas on your behalf. In a delegated approach, we act as a fiduciary and investment manager as defined by ERISA 3(38). Your plan fiduciaries delegate or share responsibilities for selection, termination, and monitoring of fund managers and strategies and may also participate in portfolio construction and asset allocation within custom funds. We can also provide additional vendor oversight, operational and implementation support. 

Portfolio implementation and fund management

Our delegated solution allows you to access Mercer’s vast economies of scale. This enables you to benefit from greater investment diversification and potentially lower investment manager fees. By choosing this investment model, you would work with Mercer to proactively implement your investment strategy across a range of specialist investment managers. Our experts then effectively act alongside the investment committee with respect to the hiring, oversight, and replacement of investment managers.

  • Custom, white labeled fund design and management
  • Investment operational services include cash flow management, re-balancing, and portfolio monitoring
  • Comprehensive tailored reporting and a dedicated partnership team provide proactive client servicing including audit support
  • Ability to leverage Mercer’s negotiated fees and potentially reduce cost

Get the Mercer advantage for delegation

We have consulted to DC plan sponsors on strategy, design, structure, investment manager research, benchmarking, and implementation. We can provide solutions that fit your needs:
  • Investment expertise

    Disciplined decision-making based on investment policy and agreed-upon portfolio structure.
  • Comprehensive outsourcing

    Expanded delegation to include committee support, vendor management, and regulatory oversight.
  • Mercer’s negotiated fees

    Potentially results in lower investment fees.
  • Custom funds

    Opportunity to leverage existing investment relationships to create customized institutional investment vehicles.
  • Portfolio execution

    Dedicated portfolio managers, operations, and service team.

The future of retirement plan management for small and midsize businesses

If you’re looking for a way to reduce responsibilities that come with plan management and improve outcomes for your participants, Mercer Wise 401(k) may be the answer. It is perfect for mid-sized businesses that often face the same challenges as a large plan. With Mercer Wise 401(k), Mercers acts as both the ERISA Section 3(16) administrative fiduciary and provides the ERISA Section 3(38) delegated investment services — giving plan participants the benefits of investment vehicles rarely seen in the under $150 million plan market. Until now.

We believe this comprehensive retirement solution is the future of retirement plans — benefiting both plan sponsors and participants. It aims to help you significantly enhance outcomes for your plan participants by leveraging Mercer’s global manager research to select highly rated investment managers.

A fully delegated solution: 3(38) and 3(16) fiduciary services.

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