You cannot understate the fiduciary aspect of lower fees. Most 401k plan sponsors, and especially those in smaller plans, don’t have the time or expertise to administer their company’s retirement plan. If they skimp on fees, are they also skimping on the fiduciary protection those professionals are supposed to provide?
Tag "Jeff Coons"
Unlike previous definitions, this version takes a definitive step towards allowing plan sponsors to forgo traditional financial measures. Rather than relying on extensive academic studies, this new Rule represents a certain leap of faith.
Nobody’s perfect. It’s unfair to expect recordkeepers to be. Everyone makes mistakes—even recordkeepers. The problem is what happens when a mistake occurs.
How do you solve, for example, the problem of integration between the payroll software and the 401k recordkeeper’s website?
A few years ago, this might have been classified as a common “mistake.” Again, “mistake” is in quotes because this is less an issue for certain plans (usually small firms or particular industries) than others.
Common mistakes. Non-believing 401k plan sponsors. How many of these have you seen? What have you done to address the dilemma of what to do when the client isn’t always right?
But this rookie mistake doesn’t bypass veteran plan sponsors. If they’ve grown too complacent with their plan, they may wake up one day to find out they’ve got a dinosaur on their hands.
Retirees should think for themselves and what alternatives they have regarding their retirement assets. These aren’t the same as they were when they were working.
If you’re a fiduciary of the acquiring plan, you want to make sure you’re not burdened with any unknown liabilities. If you’re a fiduciary of the acquired plan, you want to make sure the merger process doesn’t introduce new liabilities.
The decision to retain and service company retirees appears (at first blush at least) to be a no-brainer. But that includes a very important assumption.
