Fiducia Group

401(k) Fiduciary Consulting
Provider Benchmarking
Provider Fee Negotiation
401(k) Fiduciary Audits
Plan Design Reviews
Investment Selection & Monitoring
Investment Committee Oversight
Participant Education & Advice

Eight Penn Center West
Suite 101
Pittsburgh, PA 15276
877-707-9990 (toll free)
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Fiduciary Consultants…Protection for You and Enhanced Performance for the Participants

Retirement plan fiduciaries are personally responsible for the retirement plans they oversee. While plan fiduciaries may take their duties very seriously, they are often not able to devote the attention needed to stay on top of their responsibilities.

Given that those making decisions regarding retirement plans are personally liable as fiduciaries, doesn’t it make sense to have a partner that devotes 100% of its time and energy to being a 401(k) or retirement fiduciary and has significant expertise in doing so? Whether it’s an ongoing relationship or a one-time fiduciary consulting engagement, having a subject matter expert guiding you is a sound and prudent decision.

In effect, ERISA describes the standard of care that will be used to measure the performance of a fiduciary. ERISA responsibilities are very well defined…there are three key responsibilities:

All decisions must be consistent with the goal of “acting for the exclusive purpose of providing retirement benefits.”

Fiduciaries “owe a duty of loyalty” to the participants…not the company.

Fiduciaries must use “the care, skill, prudence, and diligence under the circumstances that a prudent person familiar with such matters would use.”

Fiduciaries do not need to have expertise personally. Fiduciaries are held to the standard of a knowledgeable investor and retirement plan administrator. However, if a fiduciary lacks the knowledge to manage their 401(k) prudently, a fiduciary may seek advice. In fact, the law requires that they get help. Many plan fiduciaries choose to hire an unbiased independent fiduciary consultant as they:

Lack subject matter knowledge

Do not have the requisite time to manage their plan adequately

Wish to mitigate their fiduciary responsibility

A fiduciary consultant can protect the other fiduciaries and add value to the participants in reaching their retirement goals, assuming they have the legal capacity to be a named fiduciary and the relevant subject matter credentials.