The Wall Street bullies will promote actively traded funds whenever possible. Not because it will help you earn a better return but because they will earn trading fees. Since the 401(k) plan has become the sole source of retirement for most Americans it should be offered more like a pension fund. Each employees will be automatically enrolled in an age appropriate portfolio. From there the employee can change their risk level. Studies have proven that less choice will result in better performance.

The fiduciary duty of prudence requires plans and plan fiduciaries to always out the interests of the plan participants and their beneficiaries first. The duty of prudence consists of various responsibilities, including the duty to avoid unnecessary expenses and the duty to provide participants with a selection of investment options that allows them to minimize the risk of significant losses and “sufficient information to allow plan participants to make an informed decision.”I recently released a white paper on the Active Management Value Ratio,  proprietary metric that allows investors and fiduciaries to analyze the cost efficiency of actively managed funds.  The white paper clearly shows that a number of the leading mutual funds used by pension plans are not cost efficient, in some cases even reducing a plan participant’s return. It could be argued that such inefficiency could constitute a breach of fiduciary duty, clearly not a sign of a successful plan.

Plans and their fiduciaries are required to provide plan participants with a sufficient selection of investment options to reduce the risk of large losses and sufficient information to evaluate such investment options and make informed investment decisions. In short, in most cases this simply is not happening.

In  most cases plans are primarily an assortment of expensive, highly correlated equity-based mutual funds that unnecessarily expose plans and plan fiduciaries to unlimited personal liability. Furthermore, in many cases plans fail to provide plan participants with all of the information they need to make informed decisions, resulting in liability exposure for both the plan and its fiduciaries.

Many plans and plan fiduciaries mistakenly believe that they do not face any personal liability by virtue of their mistaken belief that they have complied with ERISA Section 404(c). However, Fred Reish, one of the nation’s leading ERISA attorneys, has testified that over his twenty plus years of ERISA practice, he has never seen a plan properly comply with all of Section 404(c)’s requirements. Consequently, there are a lot of plans and plan fiduciaries that do not realize the risk exposure that they actually have.

The Wall Street bullies have convinced everyone that they know what’s best for your 401(k) plan and your employees. These bullies do not have your best interest in mind.

Please comment or call to discuss how this affects you and your company.