Admin Support Group, SRL (ASG) was founded in 2009 by Latitude Retirement (then known as Niles Lankford Group) an Indiana-based third-party administration firm with offices in multiple states. Latitude chose to operate ASG in Costa Rica because of the country’s democratic form of government, its location in the Central Time Zone, and its US business-friendly environment. San Jose has easy access to transportation, a proven IT infrastructure, and several quality universities that provide an educated, bilingual workforce.
ASG began operations in 2009. The manager was a seasoned retirement administrator from the US with an ASPPA QPA designation and a long history with Latitude. He moved to Costa Rica to hire and train the initial staff and manage the operations. ASG initially provided services to Latitude. All work product delivery, as well as plan sponsor and plan participant contact, were performed by Latitude. By 2019, ASG was providing service for about 1900 retirement plans.
The staff has grown to 40, all with university degrees. Currently, over 25 of them have passed NIPA retirement plan administration exams, and many have obtained the APA designation. In addition, we expect ASPPA will soon allow ASG staff to take ASPPA exams in Costa Rica so they may pursue QKA and QPA designations. As the staff has grown, facility needs have grown as well. We maintain a state-of-the-art facility, which includes fiber-optic and redundant internet service, with room to facilitate continued growth.
After several solid years of operations, which included on-going quality improvement efforts, ASG wants to expand its services to other TPAs in the US. We are currently providing contractual services to three TPAs other than Latitude and hope to continue to grow that number.