How to Avoid Lawsuits is a hot topic these days – for Plan Sponsors and Retirement Plan Advisors alike. Most plan sponsors do not fully comprehend exactly for what they are responsible within for their company 401kPlan. There are very few resources available to assist the newly assigned plan fiduciary in avoiding lawsuits. Why isn’t a fiduciary education required for each newly appointed Retirement Plan Fiduciary and each Retirement Plan Committee Member?
Recently appearing on WealthManagement.com’s website was Fred Barstein’s article titled “How 401k Plan Sponsors Can Avoid the Coming Onslaught of Lawsuits“. This article touches on Fees, Cyber Security, Education and Training, as well as Fiduciary Insurance. This is all addressed in the interest of avoiding Lawsuits! Take actions in your own plan by selecting a Retirement Plan Advisor who is perfect for your plan! Click on the video below to learn how a Plan Sponsor attendee from an Arizona TPSU Program works diligently to keep Plan Participants informed.
Are you interested in a bit more education around these fiduciary issues? All fiduciaries owe it to their participants and their fellow Retirement Committee members – to take the time to get familiar with how to avoid lawsuits within a qualified plan.
TRANSCRIPT FOR ABOVE VIDEO INTERVIEW:
Fred Barstein: Greetings. This is Fred Barstein, CEO and Founder of TPSU, The Plan Sponsor University. And I’m here today at Tempe, Arizona at Arizona State University, where we just completed a program. I’m here with Julie. Julie, okay if we ask you a few questions today?
Julie: Sure.
Fred: Before we get into that, please let our audience know a little bit about yourself.
Julie: Sure. I’m Julie, I’m a Director of Human Resources for a small to midsize company located in the Tucson area. I mainly work with individuals at a PhD level. We do drug development technologies.
Fred: Very good. So, Julie, in the program, you talked about the challenges of working with PhDs. It’s great they’re educated, but there are also some challenges. Tell us a little bit about what they are and how you deal with those.
Julie: Well, one of the challenges that we have is we need to always over communicate with them. Let them know what our plan is, make sure that we let them know what changes to our plan are. They want to know exactly where their investments are, if their investments are changing. But there’s also great opportunity in having that type of a base employment because they are educated and they do know what’s going on, they can actually help other employees become engaged in the plan as well. So they’re kind of a two prong, yes. They wear so many hats, so we have balance this by overcommunicating.
Fred: Great. Final question for you, the program. How was it? Would you recommend it to others?
Julie: Absolutely. This is my first time attending. I’m here with and was fortunate with someone actually attended a program before. I’ve learned a little bit more about plan design and some of the things that we can do in our current plan. I formerly worked for a very large company where we auto enrolled. We did some of those things. We’re not currently doing some of those. And so I’d like to implement many of those. So you’re gonna learn not only what’s really working, but you can find out ways to reinvent what you are currently doing.
Fred: Great. Well, thank you Julie, for your time today. Thanks for attending the program. Thank you for watching 401kTV and we hope to see you at a TPSU program near you soon.
