Advisor Independence: Managed Accounts and the Role of a Retirement Plan Fiduciary

This Guide for plan sponsors focuses on how advisors and consultants, in the spirit of profits and pure survival, often abandon independence and their fiduciary obligations.

This Guide explores fiduciary obligations under ERISA, the role of the investment fiduciary under ERISA Section 404, and how some advisors’ actions are now being challenged as unlawful in class action litigation.

The recent class actions directly challenge how advisors add additional services, such as managed accounts and additional charges for discretionary investment management at the plan level.
These cases raise the question of whether such charges conflict with participants’ interests and violate sponsor and advisor fiduciary obligations.

We conclude our Guide with action items and best practices for plan sponsors.