With ADP Strategic Plan Services (SPS) you can rely on us to provide investment services to help you manage your fiduciary obligations, gain access to a diverse group of funds, and offer plan participants a varied fund menu with low expense fund fees.
A Trusted Expert
in Fiduciary Investment Management
$16.2 Billion
Assets Under Managementi
Flexibility
Options and choices that are right for your business
50,000+
Clientsi
Our Fiduciary Services
With two services to choose from, you can select the investment support best suited to your plan needs.
3(21) Investment Advisory Services
What are 3(21) Investment Advisory Services?
Provides advice and guidance to your plan’s investment fiduciary and assists with the selection and monitoring of your plan’s investment options.
Who are 3(21) Investment Advisory Services best for?
- Those who have an investment manager or committee.
- Those who seek additional guidance with selection and monitoring.
- Those who want to be involved in making critical investment decisions for their business.
3(38) Investment Management Services
What are 3(38) Investment Management Services?
Acts as an investment manager for your plan and assumes full investment discretion for selecting, monitoring, and replacing investment options for your plan.
Who are 3(38) Investment Management Services best for?
- Those who need an investment manager for their plan.
- Those who want someone to perform the selection and monitoring for them.
- Those who want a do-it-for me approach to making critical investment decisions for their plan.
ADP Strategic Plan Services can help ease the fiduciary burden of selecting
and monitoring your plan’s investment lineup.
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Market Commentary & Outlook
By James Buccella, President ADP Strategic Plan Services
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Protection from Fiduciary Risk
When it comes to selecting plan investment options, you have a legal responsibility to follow the fiduciary standards outlined in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). This is a high standard that requires certain levels of expertise in areas like investment selection and monitoring, among others.
Hiring Strategic Plan Services as your investment manager may also reduce the risks associated with certain third-party, ERISA-related lawsuits pertaining to investment selection and monitoring. In 2022, the EBSA recovered $1.4 billion for the benefit of plans, participants, and beneficiaries.1 This included:
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$ 931 million
recovered from over 907 civil investigations
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$422 million
restored to workers through informal participant complaints
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$83.9 million
distributed to participants as a result of the Abandoned Plan program
Our Investment Committee
Meet the experienced investment professionals behind ADP Strategic Plan Services. Our Investment Committee is there to help you make the most of your retirement plan.
James Buccella, CMFC®
Member, President of ADP Strategic Plan Services
James T. Buccella (Jim) is President of ADP Strategic Plan Services, LLC (SPS),an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Since the formation of SPS in 2017, he continues to manage and ...
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Kevin Merrow, CFP®, CMFC®, CRPS®
Chairman, Director of Institutional Investment Consulting
Kevin Merrow is Chairman of the SPS Investment Committee. For clients who engage SPS as an investment manager, the Investment Committee ...
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Neil Fentress, CMFC®
Member, Sr. Director Investment Services
Neil Fentress is a member of the SPS Investment Committee. For clients who engage SPS as an investment manager, the Investment Committee has overall responsibility for selecting ...
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Greg Anderson, CMFC®
Member, Institutional Investment Consultant
Greg Anderson is a member of the SPS Investment Committee. For clients who engage SPS as an investment manager, the Investment Committee has overall responsibility for ...
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Kevin Drever, CMFC®, CRPS®
Member, Institutional Investment Consultant
Kevin Drever is a member of the SPS Investment Committee. For clients who engage SPS as an investment manager, the Investment Committee has overall responsibility for ...
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Michael Haggerty
Member, Institutional Investment Consultant
Michael Haggerty serves on the SPS Investment Committee. For clients who engage SPS as an investment manager, the Investment Committee has overall responsibility for ...
Read Full Bio →Frequently Asked Questions
ADP Strategic Plan Services, LLC is an affiliate of ADP, Inc. (ADP) and a separate, indirect subsidiary of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. that provides fiduciary investment management services including the analysis, selection, monitoring, and if necessary, replacement of investment options on behalf of employee-sponsored retirement plans.
Frequent fund changes can be disruptive, so we only recommend changes when they are clearly prudent. We minimize disruption so participants can stay focused, and our decisions are intended to reflect prudent investment management of your plan’s retirement assets. When making investment decisions for your lineup, we:
- Objectively evaluate the widest possible range of funds available
- Take a comprehensive approach to fund analysis, including qualitative factors
- Incorporate investment risk and volatility when evaluating returns
- Make only meaningful and prudent plan investment changes
- Consider industry trends and behavioral finance research in our ongoing due diligence process
ADP Strategic Plan Services is committed to providing our defined contribution retirement plan clients with investment services that help them effectively manage their investment fiduciary obligations, gain access to a diverse groups of funds, and offer plan participants a diversified fund menu.
We are focused on contributing toward your participants retirement readiness. Our objective is to help you design an investment menu that fits the investing needs of your plan and its participants.
As a fiduciary, it’s important to follow the standards of conduct outlined in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Among other responsibilities, this includes carrying out your duties prudently — a high standard that requires expertise in a number of areas, like investment selection and monitoring.
To help plan sponsors manage fiduciary risk, ADP, Inc. makes investment fiduciary support services available through its affiliate ADP Strategic Plan Services, LLC. With these services, you can effectively manage fiduciary risk associated with investment selection and monitoring by adding the level of ERISA fiduciary support that’s right for your "business".
A 3(21) fiduciary is named by a retirement plan sponsor to ensure that your plan is meeting specific Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) provisions regarding rights and responsibilities in managing an employer-sponsored retirement account. The fiduciary may be a third party that specializes in these functions.
A 3(21) Investment Advisor guides a Plan sponsor on managing the plan's investments. While they act as a co-fiduciary, it's important to note that they do not make investment decisions.
A 3(38) Investment manager is a third party hired by a plan sponsor to manage, monitor and sustain the investment options for plan participants, maintaining full discretion of the investment lineup.
A 3(38) Investment manager is a third party hired by a plan sponsor to manage, monitor and sustain the investment options for plan participants, maintaining full discretion of the investment lineup.
With the support of an investment professional (such as SPS) acting as a plan's 3(38) investment manager, a plan sponsor is able to meet ERISA requirements in respect to their 401(k)-investment lineup. This role assumes full discretion for selecting, monitoring and replacing investment options. The investment manager may also assist plan fiduciaries with plan monitoring and investments.
A 3(38) plan is one that has an investment manager. After extensive due diligence, a 3(38) investment manager oversees a set of investment options that they are confident using within a 401(k) plan, as the basis for all their client's plan investment lineups. Plan sponsors that choose to hire 3(38) investment managers must adopt their plan's investment lineups and trust the 3(38) Investment manager's judgment to make adjustments as necessary.