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Fiduciary Best
Practices Seminar
Hosted by Blue
Prairie Group and Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg
December 2, 2009
8:30 - 10:30 a.m.
Chicago, IL
Presented by:
Matthew Gnabasik, Managing Director,
Blue Prairie Group
Jeffrey
Bakker, Partner, Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg
This presentation
will outline the duties of qualified retirement plan fiduciaries
under ERISA with an emphasis on creating a framework for
investment and fee analysis. The presentation is designed for
plan fiduciaries and focuses on the nexus point of fiduciary
governance, investment analytics, participant behavior and fees
and expenses. We will review a series of concrete best practices
designed to (1) Improve investment outcomes and (2) Reduce
fiduciary risk.
Click here to sign-up for this event
Marketing Research
Association Webinar
Do's and Don't of
Acquiring a Company - The Human Resources Perspective
November 11, 2009
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
ET
Presented by:
Warren Rothman, Senior Human Resource
Consultant
While merger and
acquisition (M&A) activity has slowed in the current economic
environment, there are still deals to be done which can have
significant payback and return on investment. But, if a deal is
to add long-term value to its business, it is incumbent upon the
acquirer to enter into the transaction with its “eyes wide
open”. The financial, legal and operational aspects (such as
facilities, marketing, sales and technology) of a target
acquisition are relatively straightforward and quantifiable.
But, what about an often-overlooked yet key (if not most
critical) asset of a target....the people? This session will
help participants minimize potential risk in a deal by focusing
on the important leadership, HR practice and culture fit
considerations of an acquisition. What to look for, how to
capture it, and how to interpret and make decisions about the
information gathered will be emphasized as we look at the
front-end due diligence phase. In addition, sound practices and
approaches to effective integration of the acquisition will be
provided, equipping attendees to more easily and effectively
execute transactions that are accretive and add value to the
business.
More information about this
event
HR Hero
14th Annual
Advanced Employment Issues Symposium
September 18, 2009
9:30 -10:45 a.m.
Nashville, TN
October 30, 2009
9:30 - 10:45 a.m.
Las Vegas, NV
"Measuring talent
management and employee engagement programs"
Presented by:
Warren Rothman, Senior Human Resource Consultant
More
information about this event
PLANSPONSOR
The Future of
Asset Allocated Funds Conference
October 22
3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Marina del Rey, CA
"Safety 'Net?'—A
Different Approach to Asset Allocation"
Tess Malone will be
participating as a panelist
Capital preservation funds may not have made the list of
“long-term” solutions under the final QDIA regulations, but they
were— and are—a popular default choice for many plan sponsors.
Indeed, the recent market turmoil has only served to enhance
their allure. What the new generation of stable value choices
could bring to your program, and what the next generation has in
store.
More information about this event
Strategic
Investment Executive Forum
October 4 - 6,
2009
Chicago, IL
"Advanced Asset
Allocation Strategies"
Presented by:
Gary Silverman, Chief Investment Officer
Back to basics: Asset
allocation as it was meant to be
-
Why and how do
you select investments for inclusion in a portfolio?
-
Why did
traditional asset allocation not work last year?
-
Is MPT dead?
-
What’s the role
of active vs. passive management? Traditional vs.
alternative investments?
-
How does a
committee know who to trust?
More information about this event
James R. Jordan
Boys & Girls Club
6th Annual Run for
the Roses at Arlington Park Racetrack
Sunday, September
27th, 2009
12:30 p.m.
Arlington Heights, IL
Blue Prairie Group is proud to be a sponsor of this event. If
you are interested in donating and attending this event please
contact John Savas.
More
information about this organization and event
Webinar with The
Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council (MCHC)
Thursday,
September 24, 2009
11:30a.m. to 12:30p.m. CDT
"The Human
Resources Assessment: Enhancing Your Impact on the Bottom Line"
Presented by:
Warren
Rothman, Senior Consultant and
John Savas,
Practice Leader
Learn how a focused,
business-oriented strategic HR Assessment can strengthen HR's
overall value added contribution to your organization. They will
cover:
-
How a strategic
HR Assessment differs from a typical HR Audit
-
Ways you can use
Assessments to determine your department's business
priorities and ensure these priorities are in sync with
senior leadership's agenda
-
A Scorecard approach to communicating Assessment results to
senior leadership and ways to turn these results into
tangible actions
-
How a strategic
Assessment will help you and senior leadership determine
where to invest - and where not to spend - available dollars
on HR programs and initiatives, maximizing ROI
-
Using an HR
Assessment to:
- Obtain an independent, objective "read" on the state of
your department
- Address a specific challenge area, such as employee
relations or recruitment & retention
- Determine whether two cultures will mesh or clash during
M&A due diligence
Click Here to Register for This Event
National
Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators
2009 NAGDCA Annual
Conference
September 12 -16,
2009
Austin, TX
"Defined
Contribution Concepts for New Members"
Featured Speaker: Matt Gnabasik,
Managing Director
Many responsibilities fall to the members of a committee or
board and plan administrators of a public employer sponsored
defined contribution plan. This session will focus on the
fiduciary responsibilities of a committee or board members and
plan administrators, the administration of defined contribution
plans, the procurement responsibilities in selecting plan
providers and investment options, and other important issues.
More information about this event
PLANSPONSOR
2009 Plan Designs
Conference
June 3-5, 2009
Chicago, IL
“Know Comparison –
Is Your Retirement Plan a Competitive Advantages? Benchmarking
Your Plan”
Tess
Malone, Institutional Retirement and Investment Practice
Leader
For more than a
decade and a half, the retirement plan industry has turned to
PLANSPONSOR for insights and solutions. Now, you can learn from
the best in the business as part of the most innovative and
interactive forums available; PLANSPONSOR's 2009 Plan Designs
conference.
Now in its fourth year, the editors of PLANSPONSOR have
constructed this first-of-its-kind collaboration of plan
sponsors, retirement plan advisers, and providers who are
focused on understanding and applying the most-innovative plan
design solutions available.
Free Registration for
Plan Sponsors!
More
information about this event
Marketing Research
Association
2009 Annual
Conference
June 3-5, 2009
Chicago, IL
“Do’s and Don’ts
of Acquiring A Company – the Human Resources Perspective”
Warren Rothman, Senior Human Resource Consultant
While merger and acquisition (M&A) activity has slowed in the
current economic environment, there are still deals to be done
which can have significant payback and return on investment.
But, if a deal is to add long-term value to its business, it is
incumbent upon the acquirer to enter into the transaction with
its “eyes wide open”. The financial, legal and operational
aspects (such as facilities, marketing, sales and technology) of
a target acquisition are relatively straightforward and
quantifiable. But, what about an often-overlooked yet key (if
not most critical) asset of a target....the people? This session
will help attendees minimize potential risk in a deal by
focusing on the important leadership, HR practice and culture
fit considerations of an acquisition. What to look for, how to
capture it, and how to interpret and make decisions about the
information gathered will be emphasized as we look at the
front-end due diligence phase. In addition, sound practices and
approaches to effective integration of the acquisition will be
provided, equipping attendees to more easily and effectively
execute transactions that are accretive and add value.
Experience Level: Advanced
More information about this event
Pensions &
Investments presents the
Custom Target-Date
Strategies Summit
March 19, 2009
San Francisco, CA
March 24, 2009
Dallas, TX
April 2, 2009
Chicago, IL
April 23, 2009
New York, NY
Theresa "Tess" Malone
will be participating in two panel discussions:
"Valuing the
Benefit: How to Ensure that Participants Understand the Custom
Target-Date Option and Re-enrollment"
Today it isn’t good enough to just encourage participation in DC
plans; employees have to perceive the value of the benefit.
Many companies have had very good experiences with re-enrollment
campaigns. But a good communications strategy is crucial when it
comes to implementing custom target-date strategies, whether
through re-enrollment or as a new option in the line-up. This
panel will provide some best practice advice and examples of
strategies that have worked well.
"The Coming of
Guarantees"
While auto-enrollment
and auto-escalation help with the accumulation phase,
participants have often been left on their own when it comes to
figuring out how to handle income in retirement. But this
situation is changing rapidly, as insurance companies and
investment managers are teaming up to provide a range of
guaranteed income products. This panel will consider how
guarantees can overlay or work within custom strategies.
More information about this event
Profit Sharing /
401K Council of America
Midwest Regional
Conference
March 25, 2009
Chicago, IL
"Guiding
Participants towards Retirement Income Security"
Presented by: Mark Olsen of BPG and Jaime Erickson of Akzo Nobel
Recent events in the financial markets have heightened the focus
of plan sponsors on enhancing their participants' chances of
achieving sufficient income in retirement. Topics to be
addressed include the use of asset allocation products such as
target date funds to help participants achieve their retirement
income goals.
More information about this event
Blue Prairie Group
Webinar: Guaranteed Change
The Impact of Obama's New Policies
on Tax & Investment Planning
Thursday, February
19,
2009
12:00 p.m. CST
Please join Gary
Silverman, Partner and Chief Investment Officer at BPG, and
Wesley Naviaux, a founding partner at the NDH Group, to discuss
the impact of the Obama administration's likely tax policy
changes. They will focus on investment and tax planning
strategies for both business and individuals, highlighting
investment opportunities as well as risks that come with change.
Presentation Slides
The 17th Annual
East Coast Pensions & Investments
Defined Contribution Conference
February 8-10,
2009
Miami Beach, FL
Matthew Gnabasik will
be moderating the panel discussion: "The Great Debate: Active
vs. Passive Management." The panelists will dig into the
pros and cons of active vs. passive management, and discuss the
key elements that must be considered by plan sponsors weighing
this decision.
Mark Olsen will be
moderating the panel discussion: "The Future of Stable Value
Funds." Coming on the heels of the demise of large
insurance companies, how should plan sponsors evaluate stable
value funds? Are general account funds still safe?
What is the real trade-off between risk and reward? This
panel will explore these topics and more.
Complimentary
Registration for Plan Sponsors.
More Information About This Event
Pensions &
Investments presents:
Retirement Income
Solutions Summit
October 28th, 2008
- Chicago, IL
October 30th, 2008
- New York, NY
Theresa Malone, will
be part of a panel presentation entitled "Staying Calm in Choppy
Waters."
Click Here for More Information About This Event
MCHC 2nd Annual
Conference and Exhibition
October 30th, 2008
Blue Prairie Group is
proud to be a sponsor of this educational conference for
professionals in the health-care industry. We’ll be in booth
#717, please stop by—we’d love to hear about your
business and give you a chance to meet us.
Click Here for More Information About This Event
HR Hero audio
conference
Tuesday, September
16, 2008
10:00 a.m. CST
"Beyond the Audit:
How HR Assessments Prove and Promote Your Business Impact."
Nationally-recognized
HR strategic advisor Warren Rothman will teach you how to use an
HR assessment to show your organization's leaders your
department's vital role in boosting the bottom line.
Click
Here for More Information About This Event
PSCA’s 61st Annual
National Profit Sharing
and 401(k) Conference and Exhibition
September 16 - 19,
2008
"Investment Policy
Lessons from the Defined Benefit,
Pension, Endowment, and Foundation Worlds"
Matt Gnabasik will be
participating in a panel discussion on how to turn challenges
into opportunities for successful defined contribution
investing.
Learn when and how to
change investment managers and plan options.
Hear important communication strategies that take the fear out
of change.
Develop structure and fiduciary governance.
Click
Here for More Information About This Event
(Details on Page
8)
SHRP FULL DAY
CONFERENCE
October 8th, 2008
"Uncovering the
hidden costs of your 401(k) plan."
Matt Gnabasik is one of the nation’s most respected Retirement
Plan Consultants, having worked with hundreds of corporate,
not-for-profit and government clients throughout the country.
Matt will discuss excess revenue and fiduciary responsibility
and explain a six-step process that plan sponsors can use to
identify excess revenue in their plan, negotiate lower total
plan costs for the benefit of plan participants and mitigate
fiduciary risk with respect to plan fees and costs.
Click
Here for More Information About This Event
SHRM 2008
June 22nd - 25th
2008
We’ll be in booth
#2955 at SHRM, please stop by—we’d love to hear about your
business, give you a chance to meet us and talk about how we can
help your company.
Click
Here for More Information About This Event
PSCA Midwest
Regional Conference
April 17
Chicago, IL
National and
regional conferences provide education and networking among
industry leaders. Come join Mark Olsen as he explains what one
company chose to do when maintaining the current status of their
DB Plan would cripple the organizations' ability to continue
their philanthropic mission in: A Bright Future Starts With
Change.
Click Here for
More Information About This Event
Mid-America DC
April 27-28
Best Practices for Employers
Managing DC/401(k) Plans
Presented in conjunction with:
PENSIONS & INVESTMENTS
The
discussion will focus on emerging options-such as annuities,
guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit offerings, commingled
trust funds, separate accounts, target date funds, alternative
investments, managed accounts, new developments in plan design,
participant communications, investment line-ups, fiduciary
responsibilities, compliance/governance, and more.
Gary Silverman will be presenting the investment philosophy he
employs when building sustainable and effective portfolios.
This will lead into a discussion of differing indexing methods
employed by various mutual funds.
· What’s
the greater risk to your portfolio today: inflation or
recession? How do you invest a portfolio when the answer to that
question is not very clear?
· What’s
the outlook for global growth over the short and long terms and
how does that effect investment decisions?
· How
should I view investment risk?
·
Is passive (index) investing always better than active? Where
and when?
· Active
managers have different strategies. Is all passive investing the
same? (Hint: the answer is no).
Gary will share his
insights into these and other questions and discuss how Blue
Prairie Group manages portfolios in an increasingly complicated
and inter-linked world.
Click
Here for More Information About This Event
"403(b) Best Practices Update"
Webinar
Presenters: Matt Gnabasik, Managing Director and Chris
Cannova, Consultant
Please join us for a complimentary Webinar geared to plan
sponsors (especially finance directors and human resource
leaders) on best practices in managing your 403(b) retirement
plan. We'll review key components of the recent revisions
to the regulations on 403(b) plans and tell you how to prepare
for the 1/1/2009 effective date. Learn about current
trends in 403(b) plan design, how to lower plan costs and how
and why you must fulfill your fiduciary duty to monitor fees
charged to your employees. Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 12:00
p.m. CST.
Click Here
for More Information About This Event
4th Annual Target
Date/Lifecycle Funds Summit
February 28-29,
2008
The 3 West Club,
New York City
Discover the
latest products, projections and opportunities in this booming
market! Come listen to Matt Gnabasik speak at the ONLY conference dedicated to the target
date/lifecycle funds industry!
Click Here
for More Information About This Event
P&I Defined
Contribution Conference
March 2-4, 2008
Palm Beach Gardens
, FL
The P&I Defined
Contribution Conference is designed
to help industry professionals stay up to speed on
legislation, regulation, plan compliance, best practices
in plan design and the latest in investment products
and strategies. Come join Matt Gnabasik and Mark Olsen as they
speak about case studies on benchmarking & analyzing fees to
ensure that you get what you pay for.
Click Here
for More Information About This Event
Plansponsor -
Future of Asset Allocation Conference
March 4-5, 2008
Newport Beach, CA
PLANSPONSOR and
PLANADVISER are pleased to present a one-and-a-half-day
conference for plan sponsors and advisers on the future of asset
allocated funds in the 401(k)/defined contribution world.
More details to
follow!
Click Here
for More Information About This Event
Western Pension
and Benefit Conference Monthly Luncheon
Denver, CO
March 11, 2008
401k / Excess
Revenue Issues Luncheon
More details to
follow!
Click Here
for More Information About This Event
Chicago Bar
Association
March 11, 2008
This program will
provide current an relevant information to attorneys that focus
on Employee Benefits, Corporate and Business Law, Financial
Investment Institutions and Services, Federal Income Tax, and
Securities Law and also for in-house counsel and other
consultants.
Click Here
for More Information About This Event
Family Matters Reception
Several members of Blue Prairie Group
had the opportunity to attend the Family Matters reception Thursday,
February, 28th 2008 of which they are a sponsor. The Family
Matters reception is a bi-annual recognition event of the Schiller,
DuCanto & Fleck Family Law Center at DePaul who is a not-for-profit
law center that offers a stipend to young attorneys who have the
chance to dedicate two years to helping families in need on a
pro-bono basis.
Human Resources from the Ground Up: Setting Up Your
HR Department
September 20, 2005,
Lorman Education Services
Linda Jelinek, Senior Consultant from Blue Prairie Group spoke on the following
topics:
Defining HR's role in the organization
Taking inventory on
existing practices
Documenting HR
processes
Developing a short and
long term business plan
Click
here for the presentation
click here for the text
Chicago Software Association Human Resources Roundtable
July 27, 2004, Lakeview Technology, Oakbrook Terrrace, IL 60181
Jan Chirchirillo, Senior Consultant from Blue Prairie Group spoke at Chicago Software Association's Human Resources Roundtable about the following issues:
CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY
Health and Welfare Plan Management for Mid-Sized Employers Conference
February 29 - March 3, 2004
Jar Chirchirillo spoke in Orlando in late February on the renewal process for Health Welfare plans.
INFRE (International Foundation of Retirement Education)
January 25 - 27, 2004, Phoenix, AZ
Matthew Gnabasik and Sue Pedigo gave a speech, "Developing the Keys to Successful Communication" at the Retirement Education Conference. |
How do the Roth provisions differ
from a traditional 401k provisions?