I recently had the privilege of attending the National Plan Advisors Association (NAPA) annual conference where some of the best and brightest minds in the retirement plan industry gather to discuss best practices, pending and recent legislation, and industry trends. In one of the sessions it was noted that it is a fiduciary breach to make decisions just to protect yourself as a fiduciary. For me this was one of those “ah-ha” moments that made me sit back and think about the way that we make decisions as a co-fiduciary. Are we keeping the best interests of the participants first or focusing so myopically on fiduciary best practices from a CYA (cover your behind) perspective that we miss out on the big picture? Since I was forced to contemplate our process, I thought I would also share the basics of fiduciary duty with you as well.
The plan is in place to serve the best interests of the
plan participants and their beneficiaries.
It’s as simple as that!
One of the most important ERISA fiduciary rules is the exclusive purpose rule, established by ERISA Sections 403 and 404: “A fiduciary shall discharge his duties with respect to a plan solely in the interest of the participants and beneficiaries.” In order to fulfill your requirements of sole interest, ERISA established 4 guidelines for fiduciaries to follow.
- The first is loyalty. To demonstrate this quality the fiduciary must act for the exclusive purpose of providing benefits to participants and their beneficiaries; and defraying reasonable expenses of administering the plan. In essence this guideline sums up that you work for your plan participants when running the 401(k) plan and it is your responsibility to make sure they get appropriate services for a reasonable fee.
- The next is prudence. Fiduciaries must act with the care, skill, prudence and diligence under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent man acting in a like capacity and familiar with such matters would use in the conduct of an enterprise of a like character and with like goals. This is where the advice of an investment professional can be the most valuable as it is expected for you- the fiduciary – to not just act with good intentions, but also with knowledge and care.
- The third guideline is diversification of investments. Fiduciaries must diversify the investments of the plan so as to minimize the risk of large losses, unless under the circumstances it is clearly prudent not to do so. In my opinion, this is one of the most difficult demands to balance since most investors expect to have positive returns in their account every quarter despite market conditions or investment mix. However as the plan fiduciary, you have the responsibility to protect the participants from themselves.
- The final guideline is to follow the plan’s governing documents. Fiduciaries must operate the plan in accordance with the documents and instruments governing the plan insofar as such documents and instruments are consistent with [ERISA] provisions. While this may seem like a “no-brainer”, it is in this guideline where I have seen the most common problems arise. We have seen everything from not having a signed plan document to incorrectly following the plan’s definition of compensation to mismatched vesting schedules.
In nearly all cases, plan fiduciaries act in the best interest of their participants through their actions without even thinking twice about it. However, there are very strict and expensive rules around making sure that you do so consistently and that you don’t inadvertently shift focus from them to you and your assets.
Jamie Kertis, AIF®, QKA
Retirement Plan Specialist
Grinkmeyer Leonard Financial
1950 Stonegate Drive / Suite 275 /Birmingham, AL 35242
Office: 205.970.9088 / Toll-Free: 866.695.5162
www.grinkmeyerleonard.com
Today, some of you may go to your mailbox and find a check waiting for you. This check may be anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars to a couple of thousand dollars. And on any other day, but today, you would probably be thrilled to find such a surprise awaiting you in a mass of otherwise junk mail. However today, March 15th, is the deadline to make 401(k) compliance testing refunds to avoid a 10% excise tax (to your employer); therefore, if you receive a check today (or in the next few days) from the company that recordkeeps your company’s 401(k) plan , then you have just received a 401(k) refund.
There are several annoying implications of receiving money out of your retirement plan. The first is that money that you intended to be set aside as tax deferred is now taxable at a time that is more than likely earlier than you would have liked. The second is the potential impact to your overall retirement plan in that any money that comes out of the plan early is lessening that which you had saved for retirement. Finally, we have found that there is a compounding negative impact on your desire to want to continue to participate in your company’s retirement plan when refunds are received in multiple years.
Ready for the silver lining in this article? There are options that are available to retirement plans to correct the issue of refunds. Most of them involve examining the plan design to determine if there could be any modifications that would improve the likelihood of the plan passing testing. A Safe Harbor plan design would allow the plan to receive an automatic pass of the compliance tests that cause refunds. Adding an automatic enrollment option could give an immediate boost to participation numbers which could give added support to the testing calculations. Implementing a comprehensive education plan could bolster both participation and deferral percentages. These are just a few of the designs and your plan would have to be reviewed in detail to determine if one of these or potentially another solution would be right.
Every six years, the IRS requires that employers using a pre-approved prototype or volume-submitter 401(k) document restate their plan document to incorporate any and all changes made to the regulations and tax laws that impact retirement plans. This go-around is labeled the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) restatement process and will pick up the changes made by the Pension Protection Act of 2006, the final 415 regulations, the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Act (HEART) of 2008 and the Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act (WRERA) of 2008. The window for restating your plan document opened on May 1, 2014 and will close April 30, 2016 which means if this is the first time that you are hearing about this restatement phase it is of the utmost importance that you contact your third party administrator (TPA) as soon as possible to get your restatement started.
