Sentences with phrase «plan fiduciaries»

Please explain fiduciary responsibility and the successful lawsuits brought against plan fiduciaries by plan participants.

The panelists discussed how retirement plan fiduciaries need to understand their role in protecting retirement plan funds and data, and, in turn, safeguarding the personal data of their plan participants.

Imagine a world where low - cost annuities are marketed by plan fiduciaries whose sole objective is to assist employees in establishing a secure retirement without conflicts of interest or hidden agendas.

The mega-settlements Schlichter has won, along with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that put plan fiduciaries on high (er) alert about the need to continuously monitor plan investments, has encouraged more law firms to develop and expand their fiduciary litigation practices.

However, because consultants do not have discretionary authority and are not plan fiduciaries, the plan sponsor retains full fiduciary responsibility.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) prepared the following general guidance to assist plan fiduciaries in selecting and monitoring TDFs and other investment options in 401 (k) and similar participant - directed individual account plans.

They can also make it easy for participants to bring suit against plan fiduciaries for imprudent investment selection.

Rather than spell out specific guidance on how plan fiduciaries should act, the Department of Labor (DOL) has historically emphasized enforcement over regulation and guidance, the Center says.

Groom Law Group reviews how Target Date Compass is designed to assist plan fiduciaries with meeting the increasing challenges of target date fund due diligence.

By providing investment recommendations that are compliant with ERISA Section 404 (c), the Fiduciary Assure Program may help insulate plan fiduciaries against legal claims that can result from offering inadequate or inappropriate investments.

A couple of weeks back, I found a Multiple - Employer 401 (k) Plan (MEP) marketing piece by State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) that copied (without attribution) a 401 (k) plan fiduciary hierarchy I had created for a blog.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year also reminded plan fiduciaries about the need to continuously monitor plan investments and fees.

Form 5500 filings, plan audits, participant communications and plan fiduciary documentation are all made more difficult — and expensive — because of revenue sharing.

Performing an annual review helps confirm that a plan is meeting applicable requirements under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 («ERISA») and related Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Department of Labor (DOL) regulations and guidance, which is one of the essential responsibilities ofa plan fiduciary.

Are today's retirement plan fiduciaries fulfilling their duty when they don't recommend the only product that guarantees lifetime income and protects savings from stock market losses?

A new Corporate Insight report offers a brief history of the development of financial services technology security measures introduced since 1996 — delivering for retirement plan fiduciaries important contextual information about today's evolving best practices.

As with any investment product, defined contribution plan fiduciaries should evaluate a wide range of factors, including product features and fiduciary considerations, to ensure they understand these different investment products.

In selecting an investment product for a plan lineup, we believe plan fiduciaries must balance considerations such as participants» needs, tradeoffs between expected returns and risks, and objectives of the stable value investment option.

«Selecting the lowest cost TDF should not lure plan fiduciaries into a false sense of security,» he adds.

This will allow plan fiduciaries to determine if plan services fees are fair and reasonable.

While it still reversed the district court dismissal and remanded the case back to the court, in its most recent decision, the 9th Circuit based its discussion on the U.S. Supreme Court's finding in Dudenhoeffer that there is no presumption of prudence for employee stock ownership plan fiduciaries beyond the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) exemption from the otherwise applicable duty to diversify.

Plan fiduciaries typically include plan trustees, plan administrators, and members of a plan's investment committee.

While the focus of Lars» national practice is in ERISA litigation, Lars also represents plan fiduciaries and other stakeholders in matters concerning plan funding, restructuring, withdrawal liability, and and termination.

Jeanie helps employers, management, and plan fiduciary committees, design and administer tax - qualified pension plans, health and other welfare plans, and counsels them on their fiduciary compliance responsibilities and the handling of claims and litigation.

We regularly advise plan fiduciaries as to their duties under ERISA, and counsel clients regarding prohibited transactions with ERISA plans and exemptions from the prohibited transaction rules.

According to the Investment Company Institute, over the past decade, the average expense ratio of actively managed equity funds has declined 21 basis points.2 With participant protection front and center from a regulatory perspective, there is a lot more riding on the investment decisions made by plan fiduciaries.

Plan fiduciaries need a complete grasp of the vulnerabilities of their target - date strategies, and sources recommend tools and a documented process.

That said, the GAO has recommended that the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)(1) amend the QDIA regulations such that fiduciaries are required to document whether factors beyond age or retirement date are relevant, (2) provide guidance to plan fiduciaries on the limitations of benchmarks on those funds, and (3) expand participant TDF disclosures to provide information regarding the assumptions concerning participant contribution and withdrawal intentions.

In addition, it is very difficult for retirement plan fiduciaries to evaluate the performance of hedge funds, because of the wide variety of hedge fund strategies; the substantial rate of turnover of funds opening and closing; the selection bias created when new funds choose not to report returns until after they have a run of good years; and the survivorship bias created when closed funds simply disappear from hedge fund indices, the lawsuit claims.

The 401k participants claimed their plan fiduciaries failed to protect them from excessive fees — a primary fiduciary responsibility.

Betterment serves as a full - plan fiduciary, and their robo solution essentially offers individually managed accounts for each plan participant.

On June 9, the Department of Labor's (DOL) Fiduciary Rule took effect and upgraded every stock broker and insurance agent with a 401 (k) client to a plan fiduciary under ERISA.

Wrap fees add an additional layer of fees a plan fiduciary must consider when evaluating an insurance company's fees for reasonableness — Directly invoiced fees and revenue sharing payments made by the underlying mutual funds may still apply.

«Even if the plan fiduciary is able to gain visibility of a hedge fund's investment strategy, the detailed holdings of a hedge fund portfolio are not disclosed to individual investors,» the complaint says.

The gravamen of the complaint is that the asset - allocation models adopted by the retirement plans» investment committee departed dramatically from prevailing standards employed by professional investment managers and plan fiduciaries, and as a result, caused participants to suffer massive losses and excessive fees.

Hedge funds lack the transparency of publicly traded funds such as mutual funds, the lawsuit alleges, and the desire of the hedge fund manager to keep an investment methodology private is in direct conflict with a plan fiduciary's duty to monitor such a methodology.

In the meantime, Sweeney is advising her clients, who are retirement plan fiduciaries and financial service providers, to hold tight until there is more direction from the DOL.