The DOL has announced that it is launching a national education campaign called “Getting It Right—Know Your Fiduciary Responsibilities” in this press release. An excerpt from the press release:
“Strong fiduciary oversight and protecting workers’ benefits is our highest priority,” said Secretary Chao. ‘Getting it Right,’ however, can be challenging. This is particularly true for small and medium-sized employers who have limited time, resources and access to professional help with benefit programs. Today, we are announcing a series of educational seminars to help plan sponsors understand the rules and meet their responsibilities to workers and retirees, thereby improving their financial security.”
Visit the DOL’s Fiduciary Education Campaign website here.
Read U.S. Secretary of Labor Chao’s comments on the program here in which she states:
The Department uncovered the need for this kind of program because of our vigorous enforcement efforts in the health benefits and pension plan areas. In FY 2003 alone, our enforcement recovered $1.4 billion for employee pension and health benefit programs. . . [M]any employers have not implemented a systematic process to educate fiduciaries about their responsibilities under ERISA. We have found that many ERISA fiduciaries are generally not full-time plan fiduciaries. They have other jobs—for instance, running the company—and may not spend time daily focusing on their retirement plans. This program offers a helping hand to those who want to do the right thing, so that the pension plans of workers will be better protected. That’s the goal of compliance assistance.
You can also listen to an audio version of the news release here.
Some related reading from BizJournals.com: “Are you living up to responsibility?“