RKSA_Statement_of_Objectives_DRAFT.pdf

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September, 2017

Recordkeeping Services Acquisition Statement of Objectives

Table of Contents

1. Purpose

2. Background

3. Scope of Services

4. Objectives

Overall Participant Services Operational Management

5. Constraints

6. Indicative Metrics

Overall Services Participant Services Operational Services Management Services

1. Purpose The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB or Agency) is proceeding with securing a provider to manage its mission critical Recordkeeping Services, including the IT infrastructure and applications, as defined in Section 3 – Scope of Services. To procure these services an acquisition approach has been selected that is more interactive and collaborative for the purpose of attaining the best possible outcomes.

This Statement of Objectives (SOO) describes FRTIB’s high level objectives, constraints, and indicative metrics for acquiring the Recordkeeping Services, as well as, background and scope information relevant to the objectives. The purpose of the SOO is to aid the service provider in developing response(s) to requests for qualifications in the Pre-Solicitation Advisory Multi-Step process and to develop a Performance Work Statement (PWS) in the Solicitation Phase. See announcement postings on Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) for more information regarding the overall acquisition approach and roadmap.

2. Background The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP or Plan) is a defined contribution retirement savings and investment plan for Federal employees and members of the uniformed services. It was authorized by the United States Congress in the Federal Employees’ Retirement System Act of 1986 (FERSA). The TSP provides Federal employees and members of the uniformed services with a savings and tax benefit similar to what many private sector employers offer their employees under 401(k) plans. The TSP serves more than 5 million active and retired participants and beneficiaries, (estimated total of 7.6 million accounts including zero balance and inactive accounts) and will grow significantly over the next 5 years with the creation of the Blended Retirement system which will move military personnel from an opt-in design with no match to an automatically enrolled design with a match. The Blended Retirement System will be implemented in 2018.

The TSP is comprised of the following components:

• Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) Employees

• Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) Employees

• Members of the Uniformed Services

• Members of the Uniformed Services under the Blended Retirement Systems as of 2018

• Beneficiary Participants

The FRTIB mission is to “Administer the TSP solely in the interest of Participants and Beneficiaries”.

The FRTIB is proceeding with securing a provider to manage Recordkeeping Services for the TSP in order to provide an enhanced participant experience and address key issues identified in the FRTIB 2017-2021 Strategic Plan published September 2016, including, 1) An inflexible legacy IT architecture, 2) Increasing cybersecurity threats, 3) Support for Blended Retirement, and 4) Increased audit activity.

The Plan summary is available at https://www.tsp.gov/PDF/formspubs/tspbk08.pdf and additional information is available at https://www.frtib.gov/ReadingRoom/index.html.

Additional information is available in the Solicitation Library on FBO.

3. Scope of Services The following chart and Descriptions of Services provide a high level overview of the scope of services for the Recordkeeping Services Acquisition (RKSA) SOO. The in-scope services are provided by the service provider and the out-of-scope services are provided by retained FRTIB functions as well as other third party entities. It is imperative that all the services together (in-scope and out-of-scope) are delivered to the TSP participants and their beneficiaries in a seamless and unified manner to enhance their experience using TSP services.

Figure 1 - RKSA Scope of Services

The RKSA Scope of Services chart is based on TSP operations and the Defined Contribution Plan (DCP) services industry framework, developed by the Investment Company Institute (ICI). It serves as the representative business service model of the TSP operations and provides a standard taxonomy of services.

Descriptions of In-Scope Services The following services are considered in-scope for this procurement:

Participant-Focused

• Participant Correspondence - Includes contact centers, voice-response systems, Web access, excludes congressional inquiries and correspondence regarding decisions for which the FRTIB is required by law to retain final authority

• Participant Financial Education - Educate participants to drive better and smarter financial decisions and achieve their targeted retirement outcomes

• Mutual Fund Window - If offered/applicable, allow for direct purchase of mutual funds by Plan participants, in order to allow participants to choose investments other than the TSP

• Loan Processing - Process loans and administrative services associated with loans

Administrative Services

• Recordkeeping - Includes maintaining Plan records; payroll processing; processing participants’ investment elections, contributions, and distributions; and issuing account statements to participants

• Transaction Processing - Includes the processing of participant decisions noted under Recordkeeping

Regulatory and Compliance Services

• Accounting Services - Accounting services for Plan

• Audit Services - Audit support services

• Legal Processing - Ensure the split of accounts pursuant to legal processing

Descriptions of Out-of-Scope Services The following services are considered out-of-scope for this procurement:

Participant-Focused

• Participant Communications Design – Providing the branding, look and feel, and content for the TSP

• Agency PRO outreach and Training - Includes communication, education, and overall awareness training for employing agency employee's

• Investment Management - Offered through a variety of professionally managed investment options

• Annuity Services - Includes offering annuities to satisfy annuity distribution options

Administrative Services

• Trustee Services (Custodial Bank) - Provide the safe holding of the Plan’s assets in a trust

Regulatory and Compliance Services

• Plan Document Services - The Plan document details the benefits offered to participants and provides guidelines for the Plan administrator in decision-making regarding Plan operations

• Consulting - Includes assistance in selecting the investments offered to participants

• Legal Advice - Includes advice regarding compliance with legal requirements and second level review of benefits

• Plan Amendments - Development and authorization of Plan changes

4. Objectives The objectives are high level outcomes for the delivery of recordkeeping services that represent TSP priorities. The Objectives are intended to provide latitude for the development of responses to pre-solicitation and solicitation requests without being overly prescriptive or presumptuous. In this way, the Agency believes that qualified service providers will be able to leverage their know-how and experience to put forth the best possible solutions without being unnecessarily encumbered by FRTIB’s current recordkeeping environment. Request for Proposal (RFP) respondents will be required to propose a PWS for their proposed solution.

Overall The FRTIB is seeking qualified contractors to support TSP Recordkeeping and to provide defined contribution managed services that will operate and manage the associated people, processes, and systems required to deliver TSP retirement services as defined in Section 3 – Scope of Services.

From the broadest perspective FRTIB is seeking services that are world leading, agile and flawlessly delivered. This includes:

● Providing world class, global, scalable, responsive, accurate, and secure recordkeeping services to include, at a minimum, − Maintaining and updating Plan records

− Processing employing agencies’ payroll data

− Processing participants’ transactions

− Issuing account statements to participants

− Processing forfeitures, other exceptions, and error correction

− Providing access to a mutual fund window

− Administering legal and death case processing

− Protecting participant’s Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and the integrity of all transactions

− Identifying and resolving fraud

− Providing innovative services based on state of the art industry capabilities

− Responding proactively to meet changing demands without service disruption

− Continuously improving the delivery of services

− Minimizing the number of processing errors

● Supporting participant inquiries and processing requests through an integrated multichannel contact center

● Facilitating a flawless transition with a minimal blackout period while retaining the confidence and trust of participants and stakeholders

● Enabling rapid integration and implementation of statutory and regulatory changes and new FRTIB guidance

● Providing responsive and thorough audit support

Participant Services FRTIB is seeking to provide participants and beneficiaries with personalized services that provide seamless support regardless of their preferred mode of access, e.g. voice, chat, social, mobile. This includes:

● Delivering a flexible, consultative, participant-centric service that provides predictive and intentional outcomes for the participant

● Regularly and proactively educating participants to drive better and smarter financial decisions and achieve their targeted retirement outcomes

● Managing participant interactions and enable a seamless and personalized participant experience based on their preferred mode of access

● Providing FRTIB with a transparent end-to-end view of all participant plan level operations/transactions to allow data driven decisions that deliver predictive and intentional outcomes

● Achieving high participant satisfaction

Operational FRTIB is seeking Plan accounting services that also support Agency retained accounting functions as well as interfaces to other external systems. This includes:

● Providing accounting services, including reconciliation, for participant recordkeeping and support agency accounting needs

● Providing information necessary to reconcile recordkeeping information daily among multiple external systems, including U.S. Treasury and FRTIB Agency Accounting

Management FRTIB is seeking to establish a successful partnership with a qualified service provider based on trust through verifiable performance against metrics. This includes:

● Establishing and maintaining a successful working relationship based on well-defined governance and fully transparent reporting

● Monitoring and reporting performance and taking appropriate remedial action when necessary

5. Constraints The following constraints apply to delivering in-scope recordkeeping services to meet the previously stated objectives.

More information regarding unique TSP rules and processes is provided in the Solicitation Library on

FBO.

● All provider service delivery facilities and personnel shall be located within the U.S. and its territories

● Indicative data submitted by federal government agency payroll does not include certain common data elements (e.g. marital status, deferral rate, gender, etc.)

● FRTIB does not have authority over federal government agency payroll offices and are not coordinated via a centralized human resources authority

● The TSP is governed by FERSA as opposed to Employee Retirement Income Security Act

(ERISA)

● Education that can be construed as advice is subject to enforceable fiduciary standards

● Mandatory interface to U.S. Treasury and FRTIB accounting systems

● Required compliance with Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) 2014 and National Institute Standards of Technology (NIST) include Privacy Act and Federal Records Act or their equivalents

● The service provider must participate in audits of TSP services performed by Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)/Department of Labor, Government Accountability Office (GAO), Financial Statement Auditor, etc.

● FRTIB will retain Plan data ownership and rights

● Services can be automated only if they comply with FERSA and the Code of Federal Regulations

● The U.S. Treasury provides disbursement services on behalf of the TSP. Only authorized FRTIB personnel can move funds in and out of the TSP account maintained by the U.S.

Treasury

● Asset management services will be performed by a third party other than the RKSA service provider and such automation appropriately facilitates those processes deemed inherently governmental which will be performed by FRTIB agency personnel

● Program oversight and contracting in compliance

● Work with incumbent service provider

● Work with current state of data quality

● TSP documents are retained for 65 years

● The FRTIB and TSP are highly visible and subject to regulatory changes from other federal entities that may not impact other defined contribution plans

● Plan changes and implementation dates may be mandated by statute

● Participant communication design, investment management, and trustee / custodian services are excluded

● The TSP is subject to substantial, ongoing audits and regulatory oversight and involvement.

Impact on / Involvement of Vendor(s) may be substantial

● Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) provisions will be applicable and are important to understand

● The TSP’s policies and procedures found in regulations regarding breakage and error correction are highly customized and specialized

● The TSP has no “substantial compliance” principle for beneficiary designations

● Administer a customized 12:00 PM ET cut-off time for all participant transactions

● Provide information on aggregate participant transactions by investment fund and transaction type in required formats through automated delivery to enable FRTIB to:

− Manage multiple intraday transaction flows (via pre-notification processes) with investment managers and the U.S. Treasury

− Calculate net asset value on a daily basis which are communicated to Recordkeeper

6. Indicative Metrics The following metrics are offered as an indication of the types of service levels that FRTIB is seeking for ongoing measurement and reporting to verify that the services are meeting the intended objectives in Section 4 – Objectives. RFP respondents will be required to propose metrics for their proposed solution.

Overall Services Participant Survey

Service Quality Assessment

Processing Yield (Errors divided by Processing Opportunities)

Timeliness and Revision Rates

Security Audit Timeliness and Results

Conversion Live Date Target Date and Slippage

Implementation Plan Governance

Plans and Project Portfolio Timeliness

Participant Services Participant Survey

Agency / FRTIB Survey

Diversification Measures / Plan Health Statistics

● Data Accessibility and Migration Testing

Operational Services Improvements to service levels

Processing Yield (Errors divided by Processing Opportunities)

Management Services

● Successful Execution of the Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP)