ERISA requires plan sponsors to select and monitor the plan’s investments in the same manner as persons familiar with generally accepted investment theories and prevailing investment industry practices.  Where committee members lack the needed technical knowledge to properly select the investments, they are required to hire knowledgeable advisers.  There are several developments in the retirement plan market that are leading plan sponsors to seek to offload or delegate fiduciary and investment-related risk to unaffiliated third parties. 

FPRInstiutional.com preferred recordkeeper packages are available to Institutional Clients, such as Recordkeepers and Broker Dealers, to assist with offloading fiduciary responsibility from their plansponsor and advisor clientele. Through our recordkeeper program, FPR.com creates a single data link to transfer plan information seamlessly between FPR.com and the Recordkeeper. This data is then uploaded into FPRInstitutional’s technology platform for cross-referencing of the plan’s funds with monitoring criteria and Investment Policy Statement adherence to determine the appropriateness of the plan’s investment offerings.

Through the e-fiduciary process, non-fiduciary report data is converted into actionable advice and subsequent fiduciary recommendations.  All discrepancies that warrant an investment change are automatically converted into a discretionary recommendation under ERISA Section 3(38) for replacement into an appropriate investment alternative.  These recommendations are backed by FiduciaryPlanReview.com’s fiduciary warranty.

As the aforementioned risks become more apparent, an increasing number of plan sponsors will begin to reexamine their existing service arrangements to determine whether they are adequately protected, and many will conduct searches for new providers who are willing to assume co-fiduciary or even primary fiduciary responsibility over the selection and monitoring of investments.  The FPR remote advice programs are designed to meet this need and provide significant support to plan sponsors in meeting their obligations and to mitigate fiduciary risk for plan sponsors to the fullest extent available under the law.