The Plan Sponsor Time Crunch
With so many recent disruptions to what was ‘business as usual,’ how can plan sponsors ensure their retirement plan gets the attention it needs and the most important obligations get met?
According to plansponsor.com, APPROXIMATELY HALF OF PLAN SPONSORS SAID they spend less time than they would like on their retirement plans, according to a poll by Mercer.
Preston Traverse, a partner and mid-market solutions leader in Mercer’s Wealth business in Boston, says passage of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act—and the associated responsibilities for plan sponsors–and human resources (HR) transitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have only exacerbated the problem.
Additionally, “plan sponsors had a lot of questions about the CARES [Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security] Act and furloughing employees. The topic of outsourcing fiduciary responsibilities has come up more,” he says.
Traverse explains that there are three types of fiduciaries a sponsor can outsource functions to. A 3(16) plan administrator takes on day-to-day operations. “Some providers take on full administration, including approvals of distribution requests, distributing annual notices, performing nondiscrimination testing and filing Form 5500s,” he says. However, not all providers take on all tasks, so plansponsors should be clear about what duties they want to outsource.
Click here to read the full article on plansponsor.com.
Click here to read important disclosures.
