Investment policy statement
An IPS for every plan, filled in from the plan itself.
Start from a PlanTools template for the plan in front of you, or upload your own. Dynamic tags place the plan’s details, lineup, and scorecard into the text, the output ends with a signature page, and every step is documented and tracked with the client.
01
A template for every plan
401(k), 403(b), non-qualified, and church plans; ERISA and non-ERISA; 3(21) and 3(38), to name a few.
02
Filled in by dynamic tags
The plan’s name, type, sponsor, lineup, scorecard, peer groups, categories, and indexes, placed in the text from the plan itself.
03
Signed, documented, tracked
The output ends with a signature page, and every version and signature is kept with the client.
Templates
Start from the plan in front of you.
PlanTools provides IPS templates by plan type, by the rules the plan is governed by, and by the fiduciary role the advisor takes. These are a few of them.
Plan type
401(k)
Defined contribution plans for for-profit employers.
403(b)
Plans for public schools, hospitals, and other 501(c)(3) organizations.
Non-qualified
Deferred compensation plans outside the qualified plan rules.
Church plans
Plans for churches and church-controlled organizations.
Regulation
ERISA
Written to ERISA’s fiduciary standards of prudence and diversification.
Non-ERISA
For governmental plans, non-electing church plans, and other plans outside ERISA.
Fiduciary role
3(21)
The advisor recommends as a co-fiduciary; the committee makes the decisions.
3(38)
The investment manager has discretion to select, monitor, and replace funds.
Your own
Upload your IPS, or modify ours.
Bring the policy the committee already adopted into the rich text editor, or start from a template and change any section. The tags work the same either way.
The IPS Editor
A rich text editor, with the plan built in.
Write the policy once. The tags fill in the plan.
Each section of the IPS opens in the editor with its page header, formatting, tables, and images. A tag sits between two asterisks, such as *planname* or *sponsorname*, and the output prints the plan’s own value in its place.
Open the Tags list to insert one. The same template serves every plan of its type, and each plan’s IPS reads as if it had been written for it.
IPS Editor
Nuts & Bolts 401k Plan
Page headerSECTION ONE - OVERVIEW, PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES
*contentsheader*
Contents
*section*
Purpose of investment policy statement
*sponsorname* is the sponsor of the *planname* ("the Plan"), *plannumber*, which is a qualified employee benefit plan intended to comply with all applicable federal laws and regulations, including the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), as amended, and other applicable state and federal laws.
This Investment Policy Statement ("the IPS") has been adopted by the *committee* to provide guidelines for the investment and management of assets held in trust for the benefit of participants in and beneficiaries of the Plan ("the Participants").
This IPS shall remain in effect until revised or amended by the authorized person or committee. It is anticipated that the IPS will be reviewed periodically, and at least annually, to assure its continued accuracy and efficacy.
Contents
Purpose of investment policy statement
Nuts & Bolts, Inc. is the sponsor of the Nuts & Bolts 401k Plan ("the Plan"), Plan Number 001, which is a qualified employee benefit plan intended to comply with all applicable federal laws and regulations, including the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), as amended, and other applicable state and federal laws.
This Investment Policy Statement ("the IPS") has been adopted by the Retirement Plan Committee to provide guidelines for the investment and management of assets held in trust for the benefit of participants in and beneficiaries of the Plan ("the Participants").
This IPS shall remain in effect until revised or amended by the authorized person or committee. It is anticipated that the IPS will be reviewed periodically, and at least annually, to assure its continued accuracy and efficacy.
Signature page
The output ends where the committee signs.
A signature line for every committee member.
The IPS output includes a signature page that adopts the policy, with a line and a date for each member of the committee. The signed IPS is filed in the Fiduciary Vault beside the plan’s other documents.
Signature page
3 of 4 signed
Adoption of the investment policy statement
The undersigned members of the Retirement Plan Committee of Nuts & Bolts, Inc. adopt this Investment Policy Statement for the Nuts & Bolts 401k Plan, effective on the date signed.
- Morgan EllisMorgan EllisCommittee chairOct 13, 2026
- Dana WhitakerDana WhitakerChief financial officerOct 13, 2026
- Priya NairPriya NairHR director, plan administratorOct 13, 2026
- Awaiting signatureLuis OrtegaCommittee memberDate ________
Documented and tracked
Say what will happen. Show what happened. Prove it was followed.
Every IPS, every change to it, and every signature is documented and tracked with the client, so the advisor can state the process plainly and point to the record behind it.
01
What will happen
The IPS states the criteria every fund is held to, how the lineup is monitored, and how often it is reviewed. The committee signs it.
02
What has happened
Every version, edit, and signature is dated and kept with the client, so the history of the policy is on file, not in someone’s inbox.
03
That it is followed
The scorecard and the quarterly Monitoring Report measure the lineup on the criteria the IPS states, and the Meeting Minutes record what the committee decided.
With Meeting Minutes
Who attended, who signed, what was discussed.
The IPS states the process. The Meeting Minutes report records each meeting held under it: who attended, who signed, and what the committee discussed and decided.
Together they show the policy was adopted, the lineup was reviewed against it, and the decisions followed it.
Meeting Minutes
October 8, 2026
Attended and signed
4 of 5
- Morgan EllisCommittee chairPresent✓ Signed Oct 13
- Dana WhitakerChief financial officerPresent✓ Signed Oct 13
- Priya NairHR director, plan administratorPresent✓ Signed Oct 13
- Luis OrtegaCommittee memberAbsent
- Avery BrooksPlan advisorPresent
Discussed
- 01Reviewed the 3Q26 Monitoring Report against the criteria in the IPS.
- 02Placed PICYX on Removal and mapped it to FBKWX, as the IPS provides.
- 03Adopted the revised IPS; members present to sign the signature page.
- 04Next review: the 4Q26 Monitoring Report, at the January meeting.
Retirement Plan Committee · Nuts & Bolts 401k Plan
Put an IPS in front of the committee this quarter.
Bring a plan to a walkthrough and see its IPS built from a template, filled in by the tags, and ready to sign.