Skip to main content

You are here

Advertisement

Don’t Forget 401(k) Plan Committee Meetings and Reviews

Your clients offer 401(k) plans, and all have 401(k) plan committees. Those committees have fiduciary responsibility, and it’s in your clients’ interest to make sure they are fulfilling their duties. They can do that through meetings of those committees and quarterly reviews, our friends at the 401khelpcenter remind us, and offer some tips on those functions. The keys to preparing for a meeting include:

1. scheduling;
2. adequate notification of members, service providers or other outside advisors, stenographers and minutes-takers; and
3. providing upcoming meeting agendas and materials from previous meetings.

Meetings offer opportunities to provide reports from an investment or financial advisor, record keeper, custodian/trustee, actuary, CPA and/or legal counsel. Not to mention discussion of new action items, review of financial transactions and procedural prudence standards, and fiduciary training.
Consistent quarterly check-ups, the 401khelpcenter argues, allow opportunities to perform functions that will:

1. ensure compliance with reporting and recordkeeping;
2. gauge adherence to business plans;
3. review investments, financial statements, hardship withdrawal requests and fiduciary practice standards; and
4. reevaluate plan design and documents.