Balance is Key for Fiduciary and Financial Duties

Balance is Key for Fiduciary and Financial Duties

Upon the conclusion of The Plan Sponsor University (TPSU) Fiduciary Education Program held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Founder and CEO Fred Barstein spoke with Mary Calder, Human Resources Director, and plan administrator of a company of about 250 employees. Mary spoke candidly about what’s working in today’s 401(k) plans vs. what’s not working.  For Mary, on both sides of the argument was the idea of involving the company’s Financial Executive CFO in the conversation surrounding their 401(K) plan.  “I think everybody needs to get their finance department involved,” Mary advised.  “If they have a 401(k) or a 403(b), you really need to have a good partnership with the finance department, because this is about numbers, too.”

Mary went on to admit the challenges that may arise from the finance department having a seat at the table “…we always have to remember that even if your finance department has a large responsibility or a small responsibility, we still must remember that we have fiduciary responsibilities too and understand and know what the plan entails.”

Read the Full Transcript Here

Fred Barstein:

This is Fred Barstein, the founder and CEO of The Plan Sponsor University. Just completed a program. I’m here with Mary. Welcome, Mary.

Mary Calder:

Thank you.

Fred Barstein:

Okay if we ask you a few questions?

Mary Calder:

Sure.

Fred Barstein:

Great. Well, before we do, tell us a little bit about yourself and the size of your organization.

Mary Calder:

Okay, my name’s Mary Calder, and we have about 250 employees, and I’m the Director of Human Resources and responsible as a plan administrator.

Fred Barstein:

As administrator. Thank you. So two things we want to ask you about today. Number one is when we talked about what’s working and not working, on both sides was getting your Financial Executive CFO involved. So what’s the good part of it, and what’s sort of the issues people should be aware of?

Mary Calder:

Well, I think everybody needs to get their finance department involved. If they have a 401(k) or a 403(b), you really need to have a good partnership with the finance department, because this is about numbers, too.

But also, we always have to remember that even if your finance department has a large responsibility or a small responsibility, we still must remember that we have fiduciary responsibilities too, and understand and know what the plan entails.

Fred Barstein:

Great, so what are the things to be careful about, also, with having your finance? It’s too much about numbers and not enough about people?

Mary Calder:

Yes, the numbers are very important, but typically, you’ll see on the HR side is the people side, and the finance department, of course, it’s the number side. So that’s why you really need to work closely together and balance that.

Fred Barstein:

And then you talked a little about technology, that it’s good. And tell us a couple of things you’re using, and then also it can be overwhelming.

Mary Calder:

Yeah, technology is great, but we always have to remember who our audience is. So as an organization, you could work for one organization, and everybody has access to technology, and everybody has a computer and email. And other organizations, they might be all over the country, and not everybody has access. We also have to take a look. As far as technology, we might be very well-versed in it and use that mechanism, but what are your employees?

Some of them maybe have English as a second language, so we want to make sure that we’re careful that we don’t use too much technology, but we use it in an appropriate way to make things easier, both as administrators of the plan, but also as users of the plan.

Fred Barstein:

Great, thank you, Mary. And final question: something you learned, or what was your impression of the TPSU, which is your first program with us?

Mary Calder:

This is my first program with you. I was very impressed with the amount of information that we received, how very knowledgeable all the speakers were and really knew. And nobody tried to sell us anything. It was 100%, “Hey, let’s give you some information, things that you can really take back to your organization and have conversations with people about the things that we learned today.”

Fred Barstein:

Great, well, thank you for your time today, and thank you for watching 401(k) TV. Stay tuned.

 

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