The marketing of “fiduciary warranties” has increased in recent years, in response to a wave of lawsuits against retirement plan sponsors charging breach of fiduciary duty. But the fine print found in many of these “warranty” agreements does not offer as much protection as many plan fiduciaries may believe. Plan…
Posts Tagged: ERISA
Is Your Investment Committee Frozen in Place?
by Kathy Duffy, on 03.14.2016Best Practices for a Successful Investment Committee Many small- and mid-size employers don’t have investment committees for their defined contribution plans. This is a problem, of course. Even small businesses need to name investment committees and conduct regular reviews of their retirement plans. But having a committee with no process…
RFPs – A Closer Look
by Kathy Duffy, on 02.19.2016A Request for Proposal (RFP) does more than help a plan sponsor select service providers for different aspects of their plan. RFPs also help meet the requirements under ERISA §404(a)(1), to act in the best interests of the plan participants and to document the methodology used to establish a process…
All You Need is Love — and Updated Beneficiary Designations
by Kathy Duffy, on 02.15.2016Every year when Valentine’s Day comes around, we spend time thinking about how much our loved ones mean to us. We also spend a lot of money to show them how valuable their love is to us: more than $1 billion on candy and sweets; nearly $2 billion on flowers,…
Novant “Cuts Their Losses” to the Tune of $32 Million
by Kathy Duffy, on 12.11.2015It’s become a familiar story in the retirement benefits industry—a company comes under fire for excessive fees charged to its retirement plan, and plan sponsors face class action lawsuits for failing to act in the interests of the plan’s participants. More often than not, these stories don’t end well for…