Navigate and Fulfill Your Fiduciary Obligations
Ameritas helps you understand your responsibilities as a plan fiduciary so you can make sound decisions and assist employees in achieving a more secure retirement.
What is a fiduciary?
Fiduciary duty is the legal obligation to protect the retirement plan’s assets for the sole benefit of plan participants and their beneficiaries. The basic fiduciary responsibilities of a plan sponsor are outlined by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). These responsibilities are crucial for ensuring that the plan is managed in the best interest of its participants and beneficiaries:
- Act solely in the interest of plan participants and their beneficiaries.
- Act with the care, skill and diligence that a knowledgeable person familiar with such matters would use.
- Follow the terms of the plan documents.
- Avoid engaging in transactions that are expressly prohibited.
- Ensure that participants receive necessary information about the plan, including summaries, reports and disclosures.
- Ensure that the plan’s investments are sufficiently diversified to minimize the risk of large losses.
- Regularly review the performance of plan investments and service providers.
- Ensure that the plan is adequately funded to meet its obligations.
The Ameritas plan services team or your chosen third-party administrator (TPA) will assist with specific fiduciary duties that you, the plan fiduciary, are responsible for. These include plan administration, compliance testing, government filings, and plan communications.
Find Cost of Living Adjustments here.
The ERISA Compliance Calendar includes key testing and reporting dates for the current year.
Cybersecurity
The U.S. Department of Labor has published cybersecurity guidance for plan sponsors, plan fiduciaries, recordkeepers and plan participants that provides best practices and tips on protecting retirement benefits. This guidance, issued on April 14, 2021, also provided best practices for plan service providers to protect plan participant data. Ameritas, as a plan service provider, is committed to these best practices.
Learn more about the DOL cybersecurity program best practices and how Ameritas meets them.
Ameritas can help
Need help navigating fiduciary responsibilities? Tell us a little more about your needs and we’ll be in touch.