Covestor portfolio manager and Harvest Financial Partners co-founder John Fattibene (pictured at right) was profiled by Financial Planning magazine about his firm’s foray into 401(k) advisory services. Harvest manages the Covestor Domestic Dividend Portfolio, which invests in high-quality companies that pay dividends and are inexpensively priced when compared to their valuation.
As FP Magazine’s Ilana Polyak explains, Harvest helped the Philadelphia-based Eisenhower Fellowships revamp its retirement plan, which had largely consisted of middling investment choices with high fees. “After fees, the employees weren’t making all that much,” Stephanie Gropp, the organization’s finance director, told Financial Planning. The trustees were looking for a way to increase employee benefits, but couldn’t spend a lot, according to Polyak’s report:
The organization turned to Harvest Financial Partners of Paoli, Pa., a wealth management firm just dipping its toe into the defined contribution market. In 2011, Harvest took the reins of the Eisenhower Fellowships’ plan – kicking out poor-performing funds, installing a third-party administrator that charged less, monitoring the investments and even providing individualized advice to employees on saving for their goals. Best of all for Gropp, Harvest helped her sever ties with the plan’s previous provider.
Eisenhower now foots Harvest’s fee, which John Fattibene, a co-founder of Harvest, says runs between 25 and 50 basis points. Participants, on the other hand, pay less than 40 basis points on average, due to the inclusion of low-cost Vanguard funds with share classes specifically for retirement plans.
