Retirement Plan Sponsor Tools
Knowledge Center for Plan Sponsor
Dept. of Labor - Meeting Your Fiduciary Responsibilities
The Department of Labor has created a guide to help plan sponsors meet their responsibilities as fiduciaries of their retirement plan. Employers need to understand some basic rules, specifically the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). ERISA sets standards of conduct for those who manage an employee benefit plan and its assets (called fiduciaries). Meeting Your Fiduciary Responsibilities provides an overview of the basic fiduciary responsibilities applicable to retirement plans under the law.
LPL _ Understand Your Fiduciary Responsibility
This guide is designed to help you understand these responsibilities and the steps to take to effectively manage the retirement plan you offer your employees. You’ll also learn about certain services that can assist you with your fiduciary obligations.
Choosing the Right Type of Investment Assistance
Plan sponsors often need help selecting the investment options for a plan so they may wish to engage professional assistance. Choosing what type of help may seem like a confusing task. A quality service provider may bring extra value to a relationship by educating a plan sponsor about what types of guidance are available and what impact each type may have on the sponsor’s own fiduciary liability.
3(21) vs. 3(38) Investment Assistance
Plan sponsors often need help selecting the investment options for a plan so they may wish to engage professional assistance. Choosing what type of help may seem like a confusing task. A quality service provider may bring extra value to a relationship by educating a plan sponsor about what types of guidance are available and what impact each type may have on the sponsor’s own fiduciary liability.
In this increasingly high risk regulatory environment, plan sponsors are seeking new ways in which they can delegate to others some of their ERISA fiduciary responsibilities. Included among them is authorizing another to assume decision-making authority for plan administration duties. These functions have traditionally been the sole purview of plan sponsors. Any service provider rising to the challenge to accept fiduciary plan administration accountabilities - and the resulting liability that goes with them - will wish to carefully consider exactly what duties he or she is capable of performing and what additional risks they present. First a little background.
Dept. of Labor - Target Date Retirement Funds - Tips for ERISA Plan Fiduciaries
Target date retirement funds (also called target date funds or TDFs) have become an increasingly popular investment option in 401(k) plans and similar employee-directed retirement plans. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) prepared the following general guidance to assist plan fiduciaries in selecting and monitoring TDFs and other investment options in 401(k) and similar participant-directed individual account plans.
The target date is the approximate date when investors plan to start withdrawing their money. The principal value of a target fund is not guaranteed at any time, including at the target date.
With the new Department of Labor new fiduciary regulations going into effect in April 2017, this piece gives you three simple questions to ask your retirement plan’s broker dealer representative. Understanding how your relationship will change with your broker dealer is going to affect how you manage your plan.