To defend themselves against ERISA violations, plan sponsors need to understand their fiduciary obligations. As the parties generally responsible for plan oversight, benefits committees play a central role in minimizing compliance risk.
Ask an Adviser: Can terminating a defined benefit plan be more seamless?
Learn how to best position a frozen DB plan for termination.
Governance basics every plan sponsor should know
How do plan sponsors operate and administer employee benefit plans in a manner that is both effective and compliant with applicable regulatory and fiduciary obligations?
Why you should encourage ‘mini’ retirement plan audits
“Audit” is practically a four-letter word for plan sponsors, advisers and administrators. But an audit doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
A closer look at SECURE Act 2.0’s less-talked-about provisions
What you need to know about provisions that could have a significant impact on retirement plan compliance.
6 things your pension administrator may not be doing
Are you getting the most from your defined benefit pension plan outsourcer? Here are six things to check the next time you look under the hood of your relationship.
‘Free’ plan implementation can come with big costs
“Free implementation” has become a ubiquitous element of benefit plan administration proposals. The appeal to plan sponsors is understandable, but rest assured, with free implementation, you get what you pay for. Understanding the true cost of implementation will help plan sponsors evaluate potential benefit administrators and initiate the implementation process with eyes wide open and a more realistic budget.
You’ve frozen your pension — now what? 6 steps in terminating a plan
Each phase of pension plan termination involves numerous decision points and incredible amounts of data-crunching.
To keep pension plan liabilities accurate, get to know participants’ marital status
Confirming marital status when a participant dies is an important part of a plan administrator’s responsibilities, but it takes legwork and personalized attention. Here are some tactics we have used with great success.
Preventive maintenance is key to retirement plan health
Periodic checkups can keep plans running smoothly and help plan sponsors identify issues early, before those become difficult and expensive to correct. Such audits come in two varieties—transactional audits and operational audits.