Three Key Resources for Successful Fiduciaries

Often, there is just not enough time to get things done. Especially when it comes to retirement committee duties.

So, things get delayed and put off.  Yet, you know they will come back to haunt you. 

Then crisis strikes! It no longer matters that you did not have time to address it earlier, it is now red flag urgent. It has to ‘get done yesterday’. This all-sound familiar? 

It happens to most of us. It is especially true for successful HR and Finance professionals.  Competing priorities take away attention from their plan duties and creeps up on them and all of a sudden, it becomes a necessity.  So, successful fiduciaries work on outsourcing some or a large portion of their duties.

Here are three resources that can be very helpful for plan fiduciaries before a crisis strikes

  1. www.401kbestpractices.com … “how to” tools mainly for advisors, but plan fiduciaries could learn a lot from understanding how an advisor might approach your situation.
  2. www.fiduciarywise.com … the brainchild of Don Jones, this a true full-service plan fiduciary to run your plan when you do not have time to do the work and want fiduciary oversight to be done right
  3. https://www.forusall.com/401k-blog/401k-compliance-calendar/ a well done fiduciary calendar to help oversee plan operations.

SEC Reg BI’s Limited Retirement Plan Impact (from 401(k) Specialist Magazine)

I know, more acronyms.  Reg BI stands for” best interest regulation. A comprehensive package of rules and interpretations adopted June 5 by the Securities and Exchange Commission. It imposes enhanced standards on broker-dealers and spells out the duties for registered investment advisors (RIAs) in the retail investor space.  The new Regs are mainly focused on individual retirement accounts (IRAs), health savings accounts (HSAs) and retirement plan rollover advice.

The new guidance will have only a little direct impact on benefit plan sponsors but could affect how plan participants receive advice on their plan funds.

Here is the article.

The Target Date Fund (“TDF”) universe – they are not all the same

I saw a target date evaluation tool recently that stated that there were more than 30 TDF series in the marketplace.  While the statement is correct, the number is WAY off. Did you know there are now over 140 unique target date suites available in the marketplace?  This can create massive confusion in the evaluation process. They are all different, yet they often get compared against one another with very little regard for their risk/return characteristics.  You need an expert investment advisor to evaluate the funds. In addition, Veriphy Analytics a leading-edge provider of 401(k) and 403(b) plan business intelligence and “outcome analytics”, delivers elegant insights on the actual impact that TDF funds have on a Plan’s participant outcomes.  The result is a feedback loop that provides decision tools for a plan fiduciary. Click here to set up a demo.