Strong Roots
TSC is one of the oldest and largest retirement plan third party administration firms in the Upper Midwest. Founded in 1966 by Ted Giannobile, in the early years Tax Sheltered Compensation (TSC) sold and serviced “Keogh,” Profit Sharing, and Defined Benefit Plans with Ted and just one additional employee. The primary service was consulting and advising on tax deductions available to small businesses.
In 1977 TSC added an in-house ERISA Attorney to draft plan documents, provide compliance services, and work on plan administration. Ten years later TSC acquired John G. Mutschler & Associates. In 1991, Retirement Data Services was acquired, followed by CFS in 1995. During the early 90’s TSC shifted its focus to the 401(k) market, primarily in the balance-forward environment.
In 1997 TSC acquired the Minneapolis branch of UPI, which initiated TSC’s first nationwide marketing effort. Norwest (now Wells Fargo) and a number of the major brokerage firms across the Upper Midwest began to work with TSC. The company’s first relationship with a mutual fund company began at this time when MFS started offering daily valuation through a TPA. Balance-forward plans still represented the lion’s share of 401(k) business for TSC.
Continued Growth
The most significant change to TSC happened in 1998 when Ted Giannobile sold the company to Mark Foster, Gary Zurek, and the Employee Stock Ownership Plan. This change in leadership led to substantial growth in overall business as focus shifted to building a strong retirement plan administration department. The team realized there was a growing need for expert design, compliance, and reporting services for 401(k) plans – services that consulting TPA’s were best suited to deliver.
In 2000 TSC made its fifth acquisition by taking on the annual administration work for the plans that were administered by Richard Wilson, PA. A few years later, in 2003, TSC purchased PPI. These acquisitions added talented individuals to our staff and our block of business grew to more than 1500 plans nationwide. Due to this growth, we created a Client Relations Department to further expand TSC’s consulting services. About this time, TSC began offering retirement plan training to investment advisors in the 401(k) market.
In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s TSC formed a strong relationship with John Hancock and American Funds. Today that list has grown to include Great West Retirement Services, Transamerica, Principal, ING, Lincoln Financial, MassMutual, Nationwide, and other investment companies to provide professionally-bundled service options to plan sponsors and investment advisors.
Moving Forward
In 2006 Tax Sheltered Compensation became officially known as TSC. We have implemented many innovations over the last several years including the TSC Secure Site, which provides real-time access to plan records for both plan sponsors and financial advisors, and the TSC 401(k) Health Check™, a tool for plan sponsors and advisors to use in helping employees plan for retirement.
Expert consulting on plan design, compliance, and reporting remain our focus at TSC. This is reflected in high client retention rates year after year. We truly appreciate the opportunity our plan sponsor clients and financial advisors provide us to serve them in making their plans successful.
