Compensation Consultants Inc

[redacted] also lodged a complaint against Compensation Consultants, Inc. (CCI) with the Washington State Attorney General's Office.  Attached is our response.  We received notice that the State had closed the complaint.CCI has been in business for over 40 years and we believe this is...

the first complaint we have ever received.  The attachment states our position with [redacted].  We are terminating our services to this client and sending his outstanding bill to collections.You may call me with any questions. Connie A[redacted], APAVice PresidentCompensation Consultants, Inc.206-441-4411Compensation Consultants, Inc. provides the following information based on the statements by [redacted]. Explain your complaint in detail: On 5/22/14 met with Brian M[redacted] (VP Compensation Consultants Inc) and signed up for 401k for my business. The cost was $900.00 in 2014, which I paid in advance of receiving any services. Brian was my first of three assigned representatives. Compensation Consultants, Inc. (CCI) designed, prepared and installed the legal documents to establish the [redacted] & Associates Retirement Plan effective January 1, 2014. This plan was established under the EGTRRA provisions in effect at that time. The invoice for this work was $940 based on the CCI Fee Schedule which we discounted to $900. The bill was paid in 32 days. In September 2015 I was billed $1,118.00. CCI provided an annual report for the plan year ending December 31, 2014 in September of 2015. This report included any applicable testing, preparation for Form 5500-SF and electronic filing of same with the DOL. The invoice for this work was $1,118.00 based on the CCI Fee Schedule. This bill was paid in 40 days. Then in December 2015 was billed another $605.00. In May of 2014, CCI, and all other Third Party Administrators were advised that new approved language for retirement plans was required, and all existing plans were to be “restated” no later than April of 2016. This is referred to as the PPA restatement. We delayed the restatement for this plan until the later part of 2015 since it had only been written in 2014. Additionally, we discounted our cost by $300. This bill was paid in 61 days, however, finance charges of $12.53 were not paid. On October 20, 2015, all CCI clients were notified of an increase to our fee schedule effective December 31, 2015. In October 2016 was billed $1,564.53. In October 2016 CCI provided an annual report for the plan year ending December 31, 2015. This report included any applicable testing, preparation for Form 5500-SF and electronic filing of same with the DOL. The cost for this report was $1,552 plus accumulated finance charges of $12.53 for late payment of the 2014 invoice. This bill remains unpaid. To address the remainder of [redacted]’s complaints, we provide the following information: CCI has billed in the past for legal work and annual administration work separately. Thus the two invoices for the installation of the EGTRRA document and the PPA restatement. In our notice of October 20, 2015, addressing the increase in fees, we advised our clients that we were changing our billing process to include an annual document compliance fee of $250. However, there would be no future charges for legal work, including restatements, amendments, etc. This amount was included in our invoice for 2015 annual administration. In March of 2017 we were notified that the plan would be terminating. Due to regulations, since assets remain in the plan, filings for both 2016 and 2017 will need to be completed. Additionally, documents for the termination of the plan are required. In an effort to appease [redacted], CCI waived the termination fee and discounted both the 2016 & 2017 annual administration fees by $600 each. On March 20, 2017 we forwarded an invoice for $2,866.32 to [redacted]. This included the unpaid 2015 invoice of $1,666.32 (including finance fees) and the reduced charges for termination and administration work for 2016 & 2017 of $1,200. Evidently this did not satisfy [redacted], as it appears he wishes us to waive our fees entirely. We have invested more time into this client than we could ever recover. At the time we received this complaint, we were planning to terminate our services with [redacted] and to send the outstanding invoice of $1,666.32 to collections. We see no reason not to proceed with this plan.