BIA to offer MEAP 401(k) Option to Member Employers

The Business and Industry Association, NH’s statewide chamber of commerce and business advocate, is providing its member companies an opportunity to join a Multiple Employer Aggregation Program, or MEAP, that can make 401(k) plans easier to administer and less expensive. BIA is partnering with member firm Alpha Pension Group of Boston to offer the MEAP option. 

Trade associations, chambers of commerce and other kinds of affinity groups can offer 401(k) MEAPs to member companies following a 2019 U.S. Department of Labor rule. The MEAP gathers and centralizes each plan’s administrative, record-keeping and investment services to be overseen by a third-party administrator, reducing cost and time spent managing the plans.

"In today’s ultra-competitive labor market employers need every edge they can find. The ability to offer a 401(k) retirement plan can be the difference in whether a worker joins one company or another. But for businesses with tight profit margins, cost of providing retirement plans can be prohibitive. It doesn’t have to be," a statement reads. "A MEAP provides benefits of a larger pool but allows employers to maintain their own plans that work best for them and their employees. Costs of providing those plans can be reduced through collective purchasing, reduction in administration time and less fiduciary responsibility and risk."

“We are thrilled to be partnering with BIA on this retirement program,” said Rich Cawthorne, senior vice president – Retirement Plan Services, with Alpha Pension Group. “We are an investment advisory firm and exclusively work with companies to help them manage their retirement plans and we are very excited to deliver this program.”

BIA represents more than 400 members, large and small, in a variety of industries. Member firms employ 89,000 people throughout NH, which represents one in seven jobs, and contribute $4.5 billion annually to the state’s economy.

For more information on MEAPs, call Cawthorne at (877) 449-4015 or (617) 916-0335 or email rich@alphapension.com.