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Did You Know?

According to a recent Towers Perrin Survey:

  • 59% of employers indicated that they had provided little or no training for plan fiduciaries.
  • 71% of Boards of Directors or Benefit Committees did not preview benefit plan reports at least annually.
Increased fiduciary training is the key to mitigating risk.

 

The Fiduciary Awareness Seminar Series

 

The Fiduciary Awareness Seminar Series (FASS) is a sequence of progressive educational seminars designed to educate employer/plan sponsors and plan trustees about their fiduciary roles and responsibilities, with a specific focus on small and medium sized business 401(k) plans.

 

Below you'll find detailed information on the substance of each seminar in the series.  Schedules are available upon request and are available through our partners in major metropolitan markets. Information on each of the expert panelists is available here.

 

The standard FASS format entails a panel of fiduciary experts from the fields of retirement plan administration, employment law, investment management and retirement plan auditing, whereby the panelists present around the event theme in their area of expertise and from their own unique perspective.

 

Each seminar covers a specific topic of interest regarding fiduciary duties, as provided for under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), and their practical implementation within four core areas. 

  1. Understanding Fees & Expenses: These sessions address the issues of understanding and benchmarking plan fees for purposes of determining their overall competitiveness and value. We will also cover the various regulatory initiatives around fee disclosure, including the new Form 5500 and its anticipated progeny. Lastly, we will provide tips and tools for determining a plan’s actual costs, including both explicitly charged fees as well as soft-dollar revenue sharing.   

     

  2. Managing Investment Liability: These sessions tackle the issues surrounding the investment selection and evaluation process, as it relates to the “Prudent Man” standard under ERISA. We will cover the implementation and use of an Investment Policy Statement (IPS) as well as recommended tracking and reporting processes related to the periodic review of the plan’s investment options. Lastly, we will provide tips and tools for creating fiduciary safeguards that can help insulate plan trustees and investment committee members from potential exposures to fiduciary liability.  

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  3. Communicating with Plan Participants: These sessions will address the issues surrounding employee-participant communications and potential pitfalls involved when fiduciaries communicate with plan participants. We will also cover the use of third-party service providers for education and enrollment services, as well as the permissible use of third-party information providers for disseminating investment information. Lastly, we will review the requirements of Section 404(c), as well as provide tips and tools for claiming the employee-directed safe harbor.   

     

  4. Managing Outsourcer Service Providers: These sessions contend with the issues surrounding the routine selection and ongoing management of outsource service providers, including contracting guidelines and fee benchmarking. We will cover the three most common forms of outsourcing, including recordkeeping and administration, non-discretionary directed trustees and fiduciary advisors, as well as engagements around participant communications. Lastly, we will provide tips and tools for managing the performance of outsourced service providers as well as guidelines for determining when it may be time to reconsider their ongoing engagement.