1 / 16

Qualified Plan Loans: Getting it Right

Qualified Plan Loans: Getting it Right. September 2014. Agenda. Book of business statistics Loan policy trends Loan initiation Loan funding Loan refinancing Loan reamortization Defaulted or deemed loans Questions?. Book of business statistics.

prisca
Download Presentation

Qualified Plan Loans: Getting it Right

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Qualified Plan Loans:Getting it Right September 2014

  2. Agenda • Book of business statistics • Loan policy trends • Loan initiation • Loan funding • Loan refinancing • Loan reamortization • Defaulted or deemed loans • Questions?

  3. Book of business statistics Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust • 431,115 participant loans outstanding across 2.8 million participants • 186,143 loans processed over last year • 67% of all plans allow loans

  4. IMPORTANT CAVEAT • Wells Fargo isn’t perfect • Manual, behind-the-scenes processing is far too prevalent • We are not good at saying no • Participant loans can be an emotional part of plan administration

  5. Loan policy trends • 65% of plans allow one loan at a time • 82% of plans require $1,000 loan minimum • 80% of loans use an interest rate of prime plus 1% BEST PRACTICE: Guide clients toward most common provisions to create efficiencies in processing

  6. Loan initiation • Touchless loans • Participant initiated • No paper required until funding (and promissory note) sent to participant • Utilized by 85% of clients • Paperless loans • Participant initiated • Requires manual intervention by processing staff • Most common example: loans that require a review across all plans to determine maximum available and other loans outstanding

  7. Loan initiation (continued) • What prevents touchless/paperless? • Spousal consent • Sponsor preference • Residential loans • Hardship loans • Why do we care? • Time to process • Opportunity for error – participant and processing team BEST PRACTICE: Utilize trained representatives and a participantguide to facilitate quicker fulfillment of paper-based loans

  8. Loan funding • ACH funding • Funds automatically posted to participant bank account • Request initiated before market close can be funded next business day • Check fulfillment costs reduced – but ACH isn’t free • Challenge to authenticate participant back account. Service utilized by Wells Fargo covers about 50% of financial institutions • Approximately 20% of clients use today with more to come. Standard offering for new business clients

  9. Loan funding (continued) • Checks • Only alternative for unbanked participant or with non-participating institution • Check cut day after request (assumed received before market close) but mailing time will slow receipt • Overnight mailing an option with cost paid at participant’s expense • BEST PRACTICE AND CHALLENGE: ACH funding is a win-win-win for participant, client and recordkeeper. But, it doesn’t serve all participants

  10. Loan refinancing • Don’t do it!! • Manual processing: • Request must be received by contact center • Handoff to processing team • Review five year payback period • Review 50% limit • Manipulate trust funding to generate new loan while paying off old loan • Manually adjust automatically generated check to loan proceeds • Yet, we process 50 – 60 per week! BEST PRACTICE: Loan policy is your friend. Twelve month limit on generating new loans. Require loan payoff before generating new loans

  11. Loan reamortization • Legally supported reasons for reamortization • Pay cycle change • Approved leave of absence • Military leave of absence • Sponsors can direct us to make exceptions • We provide the legally supported reasons to the client and advise we need their direction to move forward • Most common reason why sponsors override legally supported reasons – loan repayments started late BEST PRACTICE: Synchronization of dates between loan initiation and payroll is key to avoiding legally gray areas and unnecessary reamortizations

  12. Defaulted or deemed loans • 90% of participants will repay their loan if they remain employed throughout the life of the loan HOWEVER • 86% of participants who terminate will not repay their loan

  13. Defaulted or deemed loans (continued) • Automated process to manage delinquent loans • List of problem loans posted to sponsor website following quarter end • Sponsor utilizes drop down boxes to code reasons why loan should not deem • Default setting is “deem/default” • Letters are sent to participants in this category advising of impending loan offset/deem with information on how to bring the loan current • But – can’t provide loan payoff amount in letter as payoff amount may change • So – many calls to contact center

  14. Defaulted or deemed loans (continued) • Sponsor engagement is a continuing problem • Some sponsors do not review list • As a result, entire group of loans will offset/deem • If participants complain, some sponsors will ask for loan to be reinstated BEST PRACTICE: Utilize automation to manage process, keeping emotion out of it CHALLENGE: Sponsors need to understand ramifications of failure to review and that “being nice” can lead to issues with compliance

  15. Defaulted or deemed loans (TANGENT) • Can we help participants avoid a default? • Targeted communications “Now that you have a loan, here are things to think about”. Research shows that participants don’t understand financial implications of taking a loan • Catch up loan repayments • Loan repayments for terminated or LOA participants • LOAN INSURANCE?

  16. Questions?

More Related