We're excited to share that Reliant is making an important change to better support your financial future. This summer our 403(b)(9) Retirement Plan will be transitioning from Principal Financial Group to a new provider, GuideStone. GuideStone has been a long-time trusted provider of Reliant's Domestic health insurance, specializing in serving faith-based churches and non-profits. Building on our existing foundation of working together serving Reliant's employees, we're now expanding our GuideStone relationship to include our Reliant Retirement Plan. The transition will take place starting on July 6th, with a transition period through July 23rd.

The attached letter (included below) explains this change in full details. 

Here are some FAQs about this transition:

Why this change?

• This decision was made by Reliant's management and executive leadership after careful consideration of the existing and future needs of our Retirement Savings Plan. Although Principal Financial Group has served us well for many years, GuideStone's expertise in managing 403(b)(9) Church plans will add substantial value to the services offered to our employees while keeping administrative costs low. 
• GuideStone's record-keeping fees are significantly less than Principal's, which will directly translate into higher net returns on your retirement investments.
• In addition, GuideStone understands the unique opportunities and challenges faced by missionaries and ministers. They have spent decades building a Retirement Service Center to uniquely meet those needs by combining tailored technology and a specialized customer care team with extensive training focused on supporting ministry workers in achieving their retirement planning goals.  

What is changing?

• The record-keeping/administrative company that services our Reliant 403(b)(9) Plan will be moving from Principal Financial Group to GuideStone.
• Between July 6th-July 23rd, no changes or withdrawals can be made with Reliant Retirement accounts. 
• After July 23rd, participants will access the retirement account from GuideStone's website.
• Solomon will be "under construction" for a little while as we refresh pages and navigation instructions based on the GuideStone website's layout. Our hope is to have our 403(b)(9) Retirement Section fully updated by early fall. 

What isn't changing?

• The vast majority of investments offered within our 403(b)(9) Plan are not changing.
  • There is one fixed-interest rate investment that some employees have selected within their Principal retirement accounts that will have a delayed transfer to GuideStone (these investments will automatically transfer in April 2026 to GuideStone). This delay will ensure the investment's full interest rate is paid out (further details on that investment are provided in the attached letter). Affected participants will receive special communication about this portion of their retirement account in the coming weeks. 
• All other investments and balances will transfer seamlessly from Principal to GuideStone between July 6th and July 23rd.
• Reliant will still be using the same default investments (Principal Target Date Funds) for our investments with GuideStone.
• Plan participants will also still have the opportunity to select their investments from a diverse list of investments and providers. (GuideStone investments will be offered as options within the investment "mix",  but participants will NOT be required to use those investments.) 

What do Reliant employees have to do regarding this change?

• Reliant employees who are currently eligible for the 403(b)(9) church plan will receive an email when their GuideStone accounts have been created. All participants in Reliant's 403(b)(9) plan will be asked to create a login (if they do not already have a login with GuideStone for their domestic medical insurance). 
• Beneficiary information will NOT transfer from Principal therefore, all participants will need to add their beneficiary information when they log into their new retirement account with GuideStone. 
• If you have an outstanding 403(b) loan, please be on the lookout for a special email regarding your monthly loan payment. Reliant will no longer deduct 403(b) loan payments from employees' payroll. Loan payments will be moved to be directly withdrawn from the employee's bank account by GuideStone on the 20th of each month. June 13th paychecks will have the final loan payment deductions. July will be a transition month without any loan payment withdrawn. This transition will provide a one-month grace period for employees to prepare for the change and to set up their bank account information directly with GuideStone.  GuideStone will begin deducting loan payments from employees' bank accounts on August 20th.

Questions? 

• We will be sending out additional emails in the month of July to keep you updated on this transition. In the meantime, if you have any questions about this transition and the services GuideStone offers, please feel free to reach out to us at payroll@reliant.org.