RTO Benefits

All employee benefits plans must comply with the mandates set by the Department of Labor (DoL) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to ensure fairness. But its documentation process is very intricate, to say the least. Most of the steps are highly templatized, where companies either work on standard guides provided by attorneys or create their version. It is error-prone, manually intensive, and expensive.

RTO Benefits uniquely positions itself in the market with an easy, automated solution-EnsuredCompliance-that changes the status quo.

“We are the only provider offering ensured compliant plan documents, summary plan descriptions and non-discrimination testing through an automated, white-label solution,” says Jay Rodney, CEO of RTO Benefits, highlighting its uniqueness.

‘What Exists’ vs. ‘What Can Be’

An essential part of benefits compliance requires performing non-discrimination testing (NDT). It is a set of IRS-prescribed tests that determine if employer-provided benefits plans discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees (HCEs) or key employees.

HCEs have the potential to contribute larger percentages of their total compensation to tax-free financial vehicles like FSA’s and Dependent Care accounts. It’s a common practice for companies to set up benefits plans for these accounts. However, if lower-compensated employees don’t have the means to contribute at a similar rate as HCEs, it can lead to inequality in the benefits they receive from the organization and tax exemption from the IRS. NDT is put in place to ensure financial equality in the workplace.

Besides NDT, employers must maintain a summary plan description and appropriate documents to support pre-tax premiums for each benefits plan. For example, the IRS requires that a premium-only plan (POP) document be in place if employers and employees are pre-taxing premiums and contributions. Also, it not commonly known that, the IRS also requires all employers, regardless of size, to perform a non-discrimination test each year.

Much of the work requires expert help, which is why companies turn to benefits brokers, HR companies, attorneys, and accounting firms for assistance. But their standard template and siloed solutions increase the chances of mistakes and non-compliance.

Meanwhile, EnsuredCompliance is an automated, cloud-based solution that addresses all IRS and DoL compliance requirements from a single source.

The system is licensed to brokers, HR companies, third-party administrators, insurance companies, accounting firms, payroll companies, and banks. These companies sign an agreement with RTO Benefits, following which a white-label website is created for them and hosted on AWS. They can then work directly with their employer clients to capture data from the website and generate the plan document and NDT, while RTO Benefits offers compliance support to the licensee, making documentation and compliance work go hand in hand.

Under the Hood of the Inventive Thinking

EnsuredCompliance is the brainchild of two brilliant industry veterans, Jay Rodney and Mike Rametta. While Rodney brings decades of HR, finance, and compliance knowledge, Rametta—CTO of RTO Benefits—uses his exceptional development skills to put that knowledge into a power-packed automation solution.

The duo started RTO Benefits in 2014 with the sole mission of using automation technology to bridge the gap between the creation of compliance documents and NDT. In doing so, they wanted to make the process automated, easy to use and guaranteed compliant, which until then was considered a massive complicated and manual undertaking. A passive compliance documentation process can often be a recipe for adversity, requiring intervention from expensive lawyers.

We are the only provider offering ensured compliant plan documents, summary plan descriptions and non-discrimination testing through an automated, white-label solution

EnsuredCompliance was the much-needed answer the industry wanted. Its objective is simple; to streamline complicated compliance processes, cut employer costs, and grow revenues.

The Wizards of Automated Compliance

EnsuredCompliance is the genie every employer wishes for. The platform can be standalone or integrated into a client’s system. RTO monitors regulatory changes and will add new and relevant data to create custom documents based on benefits plan-specific information within minutes, instead of days or weeks.

The dashboard can be used to create, review, and export documents. Every time a document is updated, it is sent to the client for review, where they can electronically sign and approve it. It uses date and timestamps to monitor revisions.

“Our biggest differentiator lies in the fact that compliance is ensured for every document, which no other provider in the market offers. We are partners with renowned national law firm Jackson Lewis that helps us maintain compliance of all the documents we create or store in our platform,” states Rodney.

Jackson Lewis also reviews the RTO system every year to ensure it conforms to the latest regulatory changes. Any regulatory change is implemented in the system within 30 days, which is by far the industry benchmark. For instance, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many new regulations emerged, and every employer seemed to be in a race against time to manage compliance. RTO helped its clients revise over 100,000 documents without breaking a sweat.

The platform also tracks retroactive regulation. It’s a statute that becomes operational even before its enactment.

In these scenarios, the platform tracks all the past data and recreates a new document conforming to the statute at no additional cost.

Reputation Rooted in Excellence

If and when any RTO Benefits’ licensee partner gets an audit or violation notice, it takes full responsibility for the documentation, so the licensee doesn’t get penalized in any way. This is an approach unique to RTO Benefits; no other firm offers this level of guarantee. It is precisely the reason why many top firms trust RTO.

An EnsuredCompliance user says, “Our biggest pain point was efficiency. In the past, we used a different vendor’s system for our document preparation. The documents were difficult to read and understand. It was also very difficult when there were any regulatory changes, as we had to go into the other vendors system and recreate the document. A huge selling feature of EnsuredCompliance for us was attending to regulatory change. The changes are automatically updated in the system and translated into the documents housed in the system.”

Apart from these benefits, client partners can also shrink valuable staff time and effort. “I had one client tell us they went from 10 people to four because of our automated platform. It also improved their work efficiency,” says Rodney.

At every opportunity, RTO Benefits tries to empower clients with compliance knowledge by answering all their questions. In addition, as part of the license agreement, if RTO Benefits is not 100 percent sure of something, it reaches out to its law firm partner, Jackson Lewis, and gets a written opinion for the client at no additional cost.

Platform Upgrade Driven by Customer Feedback

Rodney and Rametta’s deep industry knowledge and frequent interaction with industry peers keep them updated with the trends and regulatory updates in the industry. It also helps them expand their network of partners, insurance companies, and brokers.

This massive network constantly provides input on how RTO Benefits can upgrade its platform. When a client comes up with a new challenge or compliance question, RTO Benefits fixes the problem and updates the platform, making the solution available to other clients. Besides, every eight weeks, the platform undergoes augmentation with new features and enhancements.

Packing a ‘Powerful’ Punch for the Future

Offering the best, easy-to-use technology with the right advisory has made RTO Benefits a trusted compliance partner in the domain. Its unwavering commitment and a work culture rooted in its pioneering principles enable its team to achieve this feat.