Avoiding Liability in 401(k) Fiduciary Litigation

A latest spate of lawsuits in opposition to massive employers’ 401(okay) retirement plans (a Plan) has refocused consideration on the necessity for plan directors to make sure that they’re honoring their fiduciary duties and prudently managing their Plans. Many of those latest lawsuits allege that Plan directors use expensive funding choices, fail to contemplate different funding choices, and fail to train negotiating energy to cut back charges.

Whereas there isn’t any magic bullet to stopping such lawsuits, Plan directors ought to take a number of steps now to make sure that: (a) they’ve good solutions when plaintiffs’ legal professionals come knocking on the door, and (b) they’ve good defenses when lawsuits are filed.

Benchmark: When evaluating what funding choices to supply, an in depth evaluation of the charges, funding methods, and previous efficiency of varied funds is essential to making sure that the Plan administrator acts with adequate data and might make an knowledgeable choice. A Plan administrator just isn’t required to decide on the bottom value different, however an evaluation like this one may help keep away from hindsight bias if a Plan administrator chooses a costlier possibility. Third-party funding advisors supply a wide range of such providers.

Often Reevaluate: Like all the things else, funding choices change over time. Setting an everyday schedule to reevaluate current funding choices ensures that what could have been a aggressive and prudent alternative in previous years now not is smart for the Plan and its members.

Negotiate: Retirement plans have leverage, although the quantity of that leverage, in fact, varies with their dimension. Nonetheless, there’s definitely no hurt in contacting funding funds (or third-party document keepers, for that matter) and trying to barter decrease charges on behalf of the Plan’s members.

Supply a Number of Funding Choices: One option to act as a fiduciary to Plan members is to make sure they’ve a variety of funding choices accessible to them beneath the Plan. Whereas some members would absolutely choose the bottom charge passive funding possibility, others would simply as absolutely choose investing in an actively managed fund, even when the charges are a bit larger. By providing each passive and actively managed choices to members, Plans can present the popular strategy for each varieties of traders.

Make Detailed Funding Disclosures: Together with providing a spread of choices, a prudent Plan administrator may also present substantial data to members about every possibility.Such disclosures will embody a charge schedule. The truth is, ERISA requires an annual charge disclosure to be offered by a Plan administrator to members. By offering: (1) a wide range of funding choices and (2) detailed data concerning every possibility, it turns into tough for a participant to complain in regards to the Plan’s selections.

Attend Fiduciary Coaching: Contemplate having all people who act in a fiduciary capability attend recurring coaching on their fiduciary duties. Common reminders of obligations and greatest practices for ERISA fiduciary duties ensures that fiduciaries are conscious of present greatest practices, in addition to the varieties of litigation which can be percolating.

Doc The whole lot: Lastly, and most significantly, it’s vital that the Plan administrator doc in-depth all the actions it has taken – and the explanations for these actions — to make sure that it’s appearing as a prudent supervisor and as a fiduciary to the Plan’s members and beneficiaries. As vital as it’s to do all the best issues, it’s equally vital to have the ability to show that you simply did them. For higher or worse, we reside in a time and place the place folks anticipate to see documentation. Any steps that an administrator or committee claims to have taken, however which can’t be confirmed by means of contemporaneous documentation, will probably be topic to nice scrutiny.

In fact, none of those steps are foolproof on their very own, and even well-prepared Plans face frivolous lawsuits. Nonetheless, when taken collectively, these steps assist be certain that a 401(okay) plan doesn’t current a gentle goal for a plaintiff’s lawyer on the lookout for an enormous payday.