As a fiduciary, you have obligations established by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). A fiduciary must discharge their duties, "with the care, skill, prudence, and diligence under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent man acting in a like capacity and familiar with such matters would use in the conduct of an enterprise of a like character and with like aims." (ERISA §404(a)(1)(B)). For small and large employers, compliance can be time consuming. There may even be some aspects of your responsibility of which you aren’t even aware.
You will always have fiduciary status and liability when it comes to your qualified retirement plan, but you can delegate some of your fiduciary tasks to trusted experts who can ease your burden and shoulder some of the liability.
Section 3(16) of ERISA defines that the term "administrator" means either the plan sponsor or the person designated as the plan sponsor. The plan administrator is required to fulfill certain reporting and disclosure obligations for the plan.
The DOL allows a fiduciary to hire a service provider to handle some fiduciary functions. The service provider then assumes liability for the functions they handle.
Your HR team has a long list of responsibilities. Fiduciary task can be some of the most demanding. Provide them the support they need and allow them to focus on other pressing issues within your company.
Fiduciary regulations are strict and scrutiny has increased. Non-compliance may result in costly penalties assessed by both the IRS and the DOL.
| Requirement | Plan Sponsor | NBS Fiduciary | NBS TPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| ERISA bond and fiduciary liability insurance |  | ||
| Consult on plan design | |
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| Prepare documents | |
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| Review, approve, and sign documents | | ||
| Prepare required notices and Summary Annual Report | |
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| Deliver notices to participants | | ||
| Calculate eligibility |  | ||
| Prepare and send contributions | | ||
| Process contributions | |
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| Monitor timeliness of contributions | | ||
| Provide data to support compliance testing | | ||
| Perform compliance tests | |
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| Form 5500 and 8955-SSA preparation | |
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| Form 5500 and 8955-SSA signing | | ||
| Form 5500 and 8955-SSA filing | |
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| Process transactions | |
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| Approve transactions | | ||
| Prepare corrective distributions | |
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| Approve corrective distributions | | ||
| Select and monitor plan investments | | ||
| Select and monitor service providers | | ||
| Select independent auditor | | ||
| Support IRS, DOL, and independent audits | | | |
