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Retirement Plan Services for Catholic Organizations

Fiduciary support and Catholic values screened investment strategies for dioceses, religious institutes, schools, hospitals, universities and other Catholic organizations that sponsor retirement plans.

Catholic Retirement Plans Built on Fiduciary Best Practices

Investing for Catholics (IFC) retirement plan services and investment strategies are designed to advance the retirement security of employees of Catholic plan sponsors, including religious orders, dioceses, archdioceses, parishes, schools, hospitals, not-for-profit organizations and private companies that want to offer easy-to-own, cost-conscious, Catholic values screened target date and risk-based retirement plan strategies.

IFC's fiduciary services offering provides investment selection and oversight, investment portfolio construction, Investment Policy Statement development, and IFC's Performance Monitoring Report. IFC's Catholic Values Target Date Strategies provide easy-to-own, daily-valued, diversified portfolios built to pursue the long-term expected returns of global stock and bond markets, with corresponding risk, in a portfolio screened according to the USCCB Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines. Catholic Values Investments Rooted in Financial Science.

Since 2009, we have sat at the table with Catholic plan committees and worked through the same fundamentals together: putting an Investment Policy Statement in writing, following a process that can be repeated and explained, knowing exactly which service provider is responsible for what, checking fees against the market, and holding committee meetings where real questions get asked and answered. None of this is novel or complicated, but in our experience it is often underused across Catholic retirement plans, and closing that gap is where we help.

Talk With a Retirement Plan Specialist

Mary E. Brunson, Co-Founder and Senior Vice President, Investing for Catholics

Mary E. Brunson
Co-Founder and Senior Vice President

Call 888-815-5025

Email mary@ifa.com

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Resources for Plan Sponsors

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Who We Serve

The fiduciary principles are the same for every retirement plan. The practical starting point often is not. IFC works with:

  • Dioceses and archdioceses sponsoring 403(b), 401(k) or defined benefit plans that cover parish, school, chancery and clergy employees, often through a multiple-employer arrangement.
  • Religious institutes and societies of apostolic life governing lay-employee retirement plans alongside separate arrangements for their own members.
  • Catholic parishes and schools that either participate in a diocesan plan or sponsor their own.
  • Catholic hospitals and health systems seeking values-aligned retirement plan strategies for their employees.
  • Catholic charities, universities and not-for-profit organizations seeking a values-aligned investment menu.
  • Bishops, provincial superiors, finance councils and board members who hold fiduciary responsibility by virtue of their office.

Retirement Plan Services and Investment Strategies

3(38) Investment Manager Services

IFC accepts discretionary authority, and the corresponding fiduciary responsibility, to select, monitor and replace plan investments. Plan sponsors retain the duty to prudently select and monitor IFC, and are relieved of much of the day-to-day investment decision-making burden.

Catholic Values Screening

Plan investment options screened in accordance with the USCCB Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines, with holdings reviewed on an ongoing basis. See how IFC applies Catholic values to its portfolios.

Catholic Values Target Date Strategies

Daily-valued, diversified IFC Target Date Portfolios that automatically become more conservative as participants approach retirement. Designed to serve as a plan's qualified default investment alternative (QDIA), subject to the plan sponsor's determination.

Risk-Based Index Portfolios

IFC Index Portfolios spanning conservative to aggressive allocations, built from systematically managed, Catholic values screened funds and grounded in decades of academic research.

Investment Policy Statement Development

A written IPS that defines roles and responsibilities, selection criteria, Catholic values screening methodology, monitoring procedures, the default investment alternative and fee reasonableness standards.

Monitoring, Benchmarking and Documentation

IFC's Performance Monitoring Report, independent fee benchmarking, committee meeting participation and a maintained fiduciary file, so the plan's decisions are documented and can be explained years later.

Are You a Fiduciary?

Fiduciary status is a matter of function, not title. Depending on the facts, the following roles may be fiduciaries of a Catholic retirement plan:

  • The plan sponsor, typically the diocese, religious institute or Church-affiliated organization and, by extension, its leadership.
  • Plan trustees responsible for managing plan assets and making investment decisions.
  • Plan administrators managing day-to-day operations, benefit payments and recordkeeping.
  • Investment committee members who select and monitor plan investment options.
  • Investment advisors compensated for investment advice, though not every advisor accepts fiduciary status.
  • Anyone with discretion over plan management or plan assets, regardless of formal title.

What Are a Fiduciary's Duties?

ERISA, the U.S. Department of Labor, the IRS and state trust law describe the same core obligations. Fiduciaries are generally required to:

  • Act solely in the interest of plan participants and beneficiaries.
  • Carry out their duties prudently, following a documented process.
  • Follow the plan documents.
  • Diversify plan investments.
  • Pay only reasonable plan expenses and benchmark them regularly.
  • Delegate to prudent experts when internal expertise is lacking, and monitor those experts.

Under Section 9 of the Uniform Prudent Investor Act, a trustee who prudently selects an agent, defines the scope of the delegation and periodically reviews the agent's performance generally is not liable under the Act for the agent's decisions. That is the type of protection a properly structured 3(38) relationship is designed to provide; its availability depends on applicable state law and the facts of each plan.

Retirement Plan Fiduciary FAQ

Legally exempt, yes, in most cases. But state trust law applies to your plan's trustees, and it imposes standards of prudence, loyalty and diversification that closely mirror ERISA's own requirements. Exemption from a specific federal statute is not the same as exemption from responsibility.

Possibly, but do not assume it. Whether a plan qualifies depends on who established it and who administers it. Ask your legal counsel to document, in writing, the specific basis for your plan's church-plan status.

A 3(21) advice fiduciary recommends investments while the plan sponsor retains final decision-making authority and the corresponding liability. A 3(38) investment manager is granted authority to select, monitor and replace plan investments directly, shifting a significant share of investment fiduciary responsibility to the manager. In either case the sponsor keeps the duty to prudently select and monitor the advisor.

It depends on how the relationship is structured. With a 3(21) advisor you retain investment decision-making authority and the associated liability. With a 3(38) investment manager more of that liability shifts to the manager, though you retain the duty to monitor the manager itself. You cannot eliminate your responsibility to select and monitor your advisors prudently.

While it is not necessary to benchmark fees every year, IFC recommends an independent review at least every three years, or whenever a significant change occurs in plan assets or participant count. What matters most is that the review is independent, uses genuinely comparable peer data and is documented.

Start a fiduciary file, if you do not already have one, and begin populating it with your governing documents, service agreements, meeting minutes and Investment Policy Statement. Documentation runs through every fiduciary strategy, and it can be started immediately, at no cost, by any committee.

For the specific legal questions involved, including your plan's church-plan status, contract review and how state trust law applies to your circumstances, yes. IFC's services and educational materials help you understand the landscape and ask informed questions; they are not a substitute for legal counsel familiar with your plan and your state's law.

Start Your Fiduciary File Today

One of the most protective steps a committee can take is to begin documenting its governing documents, service agreements, meeting minutes and Investment Policy Statement. IFC can help you build that file and the plan behind it.

Contact UsCall 888-815-5025

Disclosures

The discussion of laws, regulations, fiduciary standards and governance practices on this page is general in nature, is not legal, tax or ERISA advice, and may not apply to all plans or circumstances. Plan sponsors should consult qualified legal and tax professionals regarding their specific circumstances. Nothing on this page should be interpreted as a recommendation or determination of fiduciary status.

Diversification does not guarantee a profit or protect against loss, and expected returns are not guaranteed. Target date portfolio allocations become more conservative over time, but they are not guaranteed, and investments remain subject to market risk, including near and after the target date. Fee information is available at investingforcatholics.com/fees.

Advisory services are offered through Index Fund Advisors, Inc., a registered investment adviser, only pursuant to a written advisory agreement.