Operating a high-end senior-living organization across Texas requires balancing two distinct operational priorities: maintaining exceptional quality of care for residents and supporting a compassionate, multi-tiered workforce. From healthcare administrators and nursing directors to dining service teams and facilities managers, senior-living employees work on the front lines every day.
When leadership at a prominent Texas senior-living organization evaluated their employee benefits, they uncovered a familiar dual challenge. Their legacy retirement plan suffered from expensive, underperforming fund options that exposed the organization to fiduciary risk, while healthcare workers lacked the clear tools needed to engage with their savings.
By pairing disciplined, incremental fiduciary fund cleanups with a modern, high-engagement employee education strategy, the organization achieved incredible results: plan assets doubled from $6 million to nearly $12 million, and employee participation soared to 84–85%.
The Starting Point: Legacy Fund Drag and Employee Disconnect
Before modernizing their platform, the senior-living provider faced systemic issues that quietly degraded the health of their retirement program:
High-Cost Legacy Funds: A single, legacy fund holding over $500,000 in participant assets carried inflated expense ratios that dragged down long-term returns.
Investment Lineup Gaps: The plan lacked a structured investment policy statement, allowing underperforming mutual funds to linger on the menu without regular due diligence.
Engagement Barriers: Healthcare workers on variable shifts rarely had the time or energy to navigate dense, paper-heavy financial packets.
To protect their leadership suite from ERISA compliance risks and deliver a genuine benefit to staff, the organization partnered with an independent business retirement plan consultant to execute a comprehensive plan refresh.
The Fiduciary Cleanup: Replacing Underperforming Assets
Fiduciary governance requires maintaining an investment lineup that serves the sole interest of plan participants. Rather than overhauling the entire menu overnight and causing unnecessary disruption, the advisory team implemented a disciplined, incremental cleanup strategy.
Eliminating the $500K High-Cost Fund
The first priority was replacing a high-cost legacy fund holding about $500,000 in plan assets. By mapping those balances into a low-cost, institutional index alternative, the plan immediately reduced internal expense ratios, keeping more money compounding in employee accounts.
Establishing Systematic Due Diligence
The committee instituted a quarterly investment review process. When individual funds failed baseline performance benchmarks or drifted from expense targets, the committee systematically replaced them with institutional-grade options. This proactive governance ensured the investment menu stayed streamlined, diversified, and fully compliant with federal Department of Labor standards.
The 85% Engagement Strategy: Automation Meets Accessible Learning
Cleaning up the investment menu was only half the equation; the workforce needed an effortless way to participate. By combining automated plan mechanics with modern digital resources, the organization transformed employee engagement.
Driving Participation to 84–85% with Auto-Enrollment
Implementing automatic enrollment removed the initial hurdle of manual paperwork. New team members were seamlessly integrated into the plan when they became eligible, unless they chose to opt out. Combined with automatic contribution escalation, overall workforce participation surged to an outstanding 84–85%.
Refreshing Digital Education Tools
Recognizing that healthcare workers are constantly on the move, the organization replaced outdated enrollment packets with a refreshed suite of accessible, digital tools:
Engaging Short-Form Video: Introduced concise, jargon-free videos explaining how the 401(k) works and demonstrating the long-term value of the company match.
Interactive 401(k) Calculator: Integrated a user-friendly calculator allowing staff to model paycheck impacts and visualize future retirement income in real time.
Direct Payroll Integration: Added a direct ADP registration link, allowing employees to adjust deferral percentages seamlessly during standard payroll updates.
Holistic Onboarding Materials: Designed a retirement-and-estate-planning one-pager for new hire onboarding kits to introduce long-term financial concepts from day one.
Onsite Financial Wellness Sessions: Scheduled interactive, in-person workshops across shift changes to provide staff with direct access to dedicated financial advisors.
Operational Strategy Breakdown
Comparing this modernized approach against legacy setups demonstrates why merging fiduciary governance with accessible education generates such significant growth:
Investment Governance
Legacy healthcare plans allow high-cost retail funds to linger indefinitely without regular oversight. The modernized framework replaces high-cost funds, institutes quarterly due diligence, and maps capital into low-cost institutional options.
Enrollment Mechanics
Unassisted plans rely on manual employee sign-ups, leaving participation stagnant around industry averages (40-50%). Implementing automatic enrollment drives workforce participation to an elite 84–85%.
Employee Learning Tools
Traditional setups rely on dense paper packets and complex portal logins. Modernizing the platform introduces short videos, interactive calculators, direct ADP payroll links, and onsite financial wellness workshops.
Building Lasting Value for Texas Senior-Living Providers
Senior-living organizations rely on dedicated staff to deliver high-touch care every single day. Providing an elite 401(k) plan with transparent investments and accessible education signals to your workforce that leadership is deeply invested in their personal financial wellness.
By executing disciplined fiduciary oversight and removing administrative barriers to enrollment, senior-living providers can build a powerful recruitment engine while growing plan assets and protecting corporate leadership.
If your healthcare or senior-living organization is ready to evaluate its 401(k) investment lineup, benchmark fees, or boost workforce participation, we are here to help. Read more about our approach to business retirement planning, or reach out to start a conversation with our team today.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Automatic enrollment automatically enrolls new hires in the company 401(k) plan when they become eligible, unless they actively opt out. By eliminating manual paper sign-ups and administrative friction, auto-enrollment often raises workforce participation rates to 80% or higher.
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Plan sponsors have an ERISA fiduciary duty to ensure plan fees are reasonable and investment options are competitive. High-cost legacy funds erode employee savings over time and expose corporate leaders to legal liability and DOL audits. Replacing them with low-cost institutional options lowers expenses and improves overall plan health.
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Direct ADP payroll integration allows employee deferral changes and onboarding data to sync automatically between the payroll system and the 401(k) recordkeeper. This eliminates manual data entry, reduces human error, and ensures contribution changes are processed accurately every pay period.
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Healthcare and senior-living staff often work demanding shifts and lack time to manage personal finances. Onsite wellness workshops provide staff with direct access to fiduciary advisors to ask questions about budgeting, tax strategies, and retirement planning, turning the company 401(k) into a highly valued employee benefit.
Disclosure: All advisory services are offered through Savvy Advisors, Inc. (“Savvy Advisors”), an investment advisor registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Savvy Wealth Inc. (“Savvy Wealth”) is a technology company and the parent company of Savvy Advisors. Savvy Wealth and Savvy Advisors are often collectively referred to as “Savvy”. The Retirement Studio is used for marketing purposes only. The Retirement Studio is not a separately registered investment advisor.
