Retirement Plan Fiduciary Issues for Employers – Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, and West Palm Beach, Florida Breach of Fiduciary Duty Litigation Attorney

Retirement Plan Fiduciary Issues for Employers – Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, and West Palm Beach, Florida Breach of Fiduciary Duty Litigation Attorney:

Retirement Plan Fiduciary Issues For Employers:

Even if employers hire third-party service providers or use internal administrative committees to manage the plan, there are still certain functions that can make an employer a fiduciary.

Employee Contributions:

If a plan provides for salary reductions from employees’ paychecks for contribution to the plan (such as in a 401(k) plan), then the employer must deposit the contributions in a timely manner. The law requires that participant contributions be deposited in the plan as soon as it is reasonably possible to segregate them from the company’s assets, but no later than the 15th business day of the month following the payday. If employers can reasonably make the deposits sooner, they need to do so.

For plans with fewer than 100 participants, salary reduction contributions deposited with the plan no later than the 7th business day following withholding by the employer will be considered contributed in compliance with the law.

For all contributions, employee and employer (if any), the plan must designate a fiduciary, typically the trustee, to make sure that contributions due to the plan are collected. If the plan and other documents are silent or ambiguous, the trustee generally has this responsibility.

Hiring A Service Provider:

Hiring a service provider in and of itself is a fiduciary function. When considering prospective service providers, provide each of them with complete and identical information about the plan and what services you are looking for so that you can make a meaningful comparison.

For a service contract or arrangement to be reasonable, service providers must provide certain information to you about the services they will provide to your plan and all of the compensation they will receive. This information will assist you in understanding the services, assessing the reasonableness of the compensation (direct and indirect), and determining any conflicts of interest that may impact the service provider’s performance.

Some additional items a fiduciary needs to consider when selecting a service provider include:

  • Information about the firm itself: financial condition and experience with retirement plans of similar size and complexity;
  • Information about the quality of the firm’s services: the identity, experience, and qualifications of professionals who will be handling the plan’s account; any recent litigation or enforcement action that has been taken against the firm; and the firm’s experience or performance record;
  • A description of business practices: how plan assets will be invested if the firm will manage plan investments or how participant investment directions will be handled; and whether the firm has fiduciary liability insurance.

An employer should document its selection (and monitoring) process, and, when using an internal administrative committee, should educate committee members on their roles and responsibilities.

Fees:

Fees are just one of several factors fiduciaries need to consider in deciding on service providers and plan investments. When the fees for services are paid out of plan assets, fiduciaries will want to understand the fees and expenses charged and the services provided. While the law does not specify a permissible level of fees, it does require that fees charged to a plan be “reasonable.”  After careful evaluation during the initial selection, the plan’s fees and expenses should be monitored to determine whether they continue to be reasonable.

In comparing estimates from prospective service providers, ask which services are covered for the estimated fees and which are not. Some providers offer a number of services for one fee, sometimes referred to as a “bundled” services arrangement. Others charge separately for individual services. Compare all services to be provided with the total cost for each provider. Consider whether the estimate includes services you did not specify or want. Remember, all services have costs.

Some service providers may receive additional fees from investment vehicles, such as mutual funds, that may be offered under an employer’s plan. For example, mutual funds often charge fees to pay brokers and other salespersons for promoting the fund and providing other services. There also may be sales and other related charges for investments offered by a service provider. The information provided by service providers noted above should include a description of all compensation related to the services to be provided that the service providers expect to receive directly from the plan as well as the compensation they expect to receive from other sources.

Who pays the fees? Plan expenses may be paid by the employer, the plan, or both. In addition, for expenses paid by the plan, they may be allocated to participants’ accounts in a variety of ways. In any case, the plan document should specify how fees are paid.

Monitoring A Service Provider:

An employer should establish and follow a formal review process at reasonable intervals to decide if it wants to continue using the current service providers or look for replacements. When monitoring service providers, actions to ensure they are performing the agreed-upon services include:

  • Evaluating any notices received from the service provider about possible changes to their compensation and the other information they provided when hired (or when the contract or arrangement was renewed);
  • Reviewing the service providers’ performance;
  • Reading any reports they provide;
  • Checking actual fees charged;
  • Asking about policies and practices (such as trading, investment turnover, and proxy voting); and
  • Following up on participant complaints.

Providing Information in Participant-Directed Plans:

When plans allow participants to direct their investments, fiduciaries need to take steps to regularly make participants aware of their rights and responsibilities under the plan related to directing their investments. This includes providing plan and investment-related information, including information about fees and expenses, that participants need to make informed decisions about the management of their individual accounts. Participants must receive the information before they can first direct their investment in the plan and annually thereafter. The investment-related information needs to be presented in a format, such as a chart, that allows for a comparison among the plan’s investment options. A model chart is available on this website. If you use information provided by a service provider that you rely on reasonably and in good faith, you will be protected from liability for the completeness and accuracy of the information.

Investment Advice And Education

More and more employers are offering participants help so they can make informed investment decisions.  Employers may decide to hire an investment adviser offering specific investment advice to participants. These advisers are fiduciaries and have a responsibility to the plan participants. On the other hand, an employer may hire a service provider to provide general financial and investment education, interactive investment materials, and information based on asset allocation models. As long as the material is general in nature, providers of investment education are not fiduciaries. However, the decision to select an investment adviser or a provider offering investment education is a fiduciary action and must be carried out in the same manner as hiring any plan service provider.

Please keep in mind that the above information is being provided for educational purposes only.  Thus, it is not designed to be complete in all material respects.  If after reading this article you have any questions, please contact a qualified professional.

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