Investment Advisory

Independent, transparent, and focused on your organization

Your organization’s retirement plan is complex, full of ever-changing details, regulations, and oversight. We’ve built our reputation on understanding these complexities and helping our clients build strong retirement plans for the past two decades. Conrad Siegel’s investment experts help you simplify and strengthen your retirement plan to meet participant retirement goals and attract and retain workforce talent. We’ll work to better manage organizational costs, litigation risk and fiduciary liability, all the while keeping administration straight-forward and simple.

We provide a spectrum of comprehensive investment consulting, fiduciary oversight, plan design, and participant services. We’re equally comfortable providing a full range of services or complementing what you already have in place. 

Our consulting teams serve a diverse client base from local companies and organizations to billion-dollar corporations. Our multidisciplinary expertise enables us to work across various industries including healthcare, education, manufacturing, professional services, and government.

Investment Services

  • Investment menu design
  • Fund selection and monitoring
  • QDIA selection, review, creation, and management
  • Portfolio asset allocation
  • Liability driven investing

Fiduciary Consulting

  • Investment policy development and documentation
  • Prudent process documentation
  • Evaluation of managed account programs
  • Retirement income solution evaluations
  • Plan cost studies and benchmarking
  • Fiduciary training
  • Plan and benefits design consulting and benchmarking
  • Recordkeeping searches

Participant Services

  • Participant education
  • Evaluation of financial wellness programs
  • Defined benefit plan monthly participant benefit payments

Looking for a fiduciary perspective?

Reach out to our friendly team – we’re experts at taking a retirement plan’s most complex elements and simplifying them. We’ll tell you what you need to know, why, and what you should do.

$7.7+ Billion

Assets Under Management

Top DC Advisor Team

2022 National Association of Plan Advisors

RIA

Top Registered Investment Advisor

2022 Financial Advisor Magazine

Top 10

Manager of DC Assets

2021 Pensions & Investments

Assets Under Management presented as of 6/30/2023. Award information and criteria can be found at conradsiegel.com/csia-disclosure

Leading the retirement team

Some of our clients’ most enjoyable and productive experiences occur when all their providers are working together. We view that as our role; facilitating that relationship building, driving that prudent process and leading the team so that everyone stays on track.

No-nonsense consulting: You want a consultant that makes your job easier. Our goal is to help you implement a more effective, efficient decision making process, and to gain a deeper understanding of your investment landscape as a fiduciary. Together, we can help ensure your company is maximizing its retirement plan and your employees are getting the most out of their benefits.

Integrity is our policy: Our policy is to always fully disclose costs to you. We do not receive commissions from any of the mutual funds that we recommend and, if any revenue sharing is paid, we recommend that it be returned automatically to participants invested in those funds.

Serving diverse clients: Our clients are diverse and range in size from $1 million to over $1 billion. They are located in California, Florida, New York and in-between. We’ve partnered with a variety of industries including healthcare, education, manufacturing, professional services, and government entities.

True Fiduciaries:

  • ERISA 3(21) non-discretionary advisor: In this arrangement we will make recommendations but the organization retains the responsibility to approve and have implemented.
  • ERISA 3(38) discretionary manager: In this arrangement we will make recommendations and have the authority to have implemented without the organizations specific approval.

Our investment philosophy

There is no one investment lineup that is perfect for all plans; as fiduciaries we are to develop a lineup that is appropriate for YOUR participants. We believe there are two types of participants; the do-it-for-me and the do-it-myself participant. The investment lineup should meet the needs of both participants.

The best place to start is to look at the lineup in tiers and determine which tiers are most appropriate for your participants. Those tiers include:

  • An easy investment option designed specifically for the do-it-for-me participant which can include target date funds, risk based funds, and custom investment portfolios.

Additional tiers include:

  • A core menu of index funds
  • A selection of non-index or actively managed funds
  • Self-directed brokerage accounts

Long-term

Our focus is on a long-term, well-diversified portfolio, not timing the market

Flexible

Everyone’s plan looks a little different. We work with you to design the right plan for your staff.

Academic & Research-Based

Our in-house research team helps us construct portfolios that are sophisticated, yet uncomplicated.

Cost-Controlled

Costs eat away at investment returns. We believe in using low-expense investments within a plan.

Resources

Investment Menu Handbook

There is not one ideal menu that is appropriate for everyone. You need to determine what’s most appropriate for your participants.

Retirement Plan: Fees Checklist

Understanding and evaluating plan fees are an important part of a fiduciary’s responsibility. Are you checking the right boxes?

Investment Committee Handbook

A complete guide for you investment committee covering fiduciary responsibility and your role in managing a retirement plan.