Familiarity may breed contempt, but it also makes you sloppy. Do you know plan sponsors that have forgotten they need to address these matters?
Tag "fiduciary"
Although the Rule appears to be directed primarily at service providers, plan sponsors still have a fiduciary duty to monitor plan compliance, and that includes complying with the demands of this new rule.
Because things happened so fast, everyday folks could see in real time how long-term financial systems unfold. In the end, this may have been the greatest lesson of all, and it came courtesy of living in the real-world economic laboratory that was 2020.
“Encouraging lifetime income distributions was one of my major initiatives at DOL and my biggest regret was that I was not able to move the ball forward as much as I wanted during my time there.” Here she explains why.
Thoughtleaders with the veteran experience to sift through the noise and separate the wheat of solid trends from the chaff of tiresome fads. Accurately discerning between the two can mean the difference between long-term sustainability and irretrievably sunk costs.
The mistaken promise of participation may have an all-too-familiar ring to corporate retirement plan veterans.
Astute fiduciaries understand this danger. They can proactively head off turbulence before the waters get particularly bad.
In the end, though, you must remember the PEP is brand new. Not all offerings will offer the same advantages. Some may be designed specifically to forego one advantage to emphasize another.
Here things get a little familiar for companies with pre-existing stand-alone 401k plans (but may need to be discovered by those without plans).
If plan sponsors assume things can return to the pre-Covid normal, they risk exasperating existing problems. They’re there and cannot be ignored.
