In 2004, the Department of Labor (DOL) launched the “Getting it Right – Know Your Fiduciary Responsibilities” campaign. The campaign was designed to improve workers’ health and retirement security by educating employers and service providers about their fiduciary responsibilities under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
Shortly after that, the DOL began asking sponsors for information related to fiduciary training and education as part of their examination program. While the number of examiners and examinations seem to be on the decline, their focus on educating sponsors has remained consistent.
To support the initiative, the DOL has delivered in-person seminars in 53 cities across the country and delivered dozens of webcasts on “Getting it Right.” Unfortunately, the DOL has only scratched the surface of the need for this education, and the content of the talks has been too broad and rarely touches on the unique needs of the attendees.
Most committee members spend less than 40 hours annually directly engaged in their duties as fiduciaries. Smaller plans may have committee members who work directly on retirement far less than that. Educating those members to a point where they can be effective and confident in their role is one of our most important obligations to our clients.
To that end, this year we launched our comprehensive suite of integrated fiduciary education to support our clients. This suite of resources allows us to pair our curriculum with where they are in the education cycle.
For newer committees, we focus on the basics of fiduciary duty and responsibilities. From there, we move to addressing the finer points of fiduciary education, including governance, service provider monitoring, employee engagement, plan operations, and investment monitoring.
We are honored to have served some of our clients (and their committees and members) for well over a decade. For those committees, we have focused fiduciary education on topics ranging from the preparation of meeting minutes to how you select asset classes for inclusion in a defined contribution plan menu.
These presentations have been developed as short-form training that can be done as part of a typical retirement plan committee meeting. The full catalog of content represents hours of intellectual capital we believe can continue to increase the effectiveness of our clients and by extension the plans they manage on behalf of their participants.
As new committee members are added to existing committees, we also assist clients with fiduciary training and orientation materials to help bring those members “up the curve.” Fresh ideas can improve the effectiveness of a committee, but to take advantage of those ideas new members must possess the basic framework of responsibilities, history, and committee objectives.
Here is what we have been working on at Multnomah Group. From the earliest days of the firm, one of our organizing principals has been to simplify what makes retirement plans intimidating for committees and participants. By empowering our clients with training, knowledge, and confidence, they are equipped to act as successful fiduciaries to their plan.
Multnomah Group is a registered investment adviser, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any information contained herein or on Multnomah Group’s website is provided for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Multnomah Group does not provide legal or tax advice.
Any views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of Multnomah Group or Multnomah Group’s clients.