Are You Meeting Your Fiduciary Obligations?

Fact: ERISA plan fiduciaries are personally liable in the event of fiduciary breach of duty.

Each of the questions below are based on one or more fiduciary practices which have been fully substantiated by legislation, case law, and regulatory opinion letters as identified in Prudent Investment Practices for Investment Stewards published by fi360®.

Each question is intended to be answered in the affirmative ("Yes"). Note that this is not an all-inclusive listing of measurements you should utilize to analyze how well you and your organization is meeting defined global fiduciary standards of excellence but represents some of the key components:

• Have all investment fiduciaries been identified?
   
• Have fiduciaries acknowledged their status, duties, chaired positions, and responsibilities in writing?
   
• Is there an Investment Policy Statement (IPS) in place?
   
• Does the IPS define the duties and responsibilities of all parties involved?
   
• Does the IPS define monitoring criteria for investment options and service vendors?
   
• Are there periodic reports which compare investment performance against an appropriate index and peer groups, as well as IPS objectives?
   
• Are fees charged against plan assets considered and documented to be fair and reasonable?
   
• Are there written minutes documenting fiduciary meetings following a prudent plan governance process?