Some of us are retirement plan fiduciaries, and some of us do everything we can to keep from being a fiduciary! The Department of Labor (DOL) wants to clarify the line so it is clear to all parties whether or not they are serving in a fiduciary capacity. The DOL had proposed a comprehensive new definition, but they pulled the proposed regulation this week.
In general, it is a fiduciary’s responsibility to:
There are three official types of retirement plan fiduciaries defined by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA):
§3(21) defines the fiduciary as someone who:
§3(16) is defined as a full scope fiduciary, and includes the Plan Administrator or Plan Sponsor.
§3(38) defines the investment fiduciary as someone who:
The DOL had issued wide-ranging guidelines that pulled many advisors into the status of retirement plan fiduciaries. Those regulations were pulled after an outcry from many in the advisory community including broker-dealers. Watch for this issue to be simmering for a while!