Fiduciary liability?...

[Guest RONNIE WASEL]

Question deals with inputing information via the internet that leads to an ACH out of sponsor's banking instituion for contributions.

Does this pose any sort of fiduciary liability? And if so, is there a way to have them "sign off" or any other way to reduce this liability?

Thanks,

Ronnie

[JohnCheek]

Sounds like you are describing a clerical function, similar to writing a check to pay contributions. That should not involve fiduciary liability.

You might argue that the decision to set up the ACH system might be fiduciary, but I think that's too much of a stretch.

[Guest Libby]

It's hard to tell exactly what's happening from the description, but if you don't control the assets, you probably don't have a fiduciary issue.

On the other hand I've had some TPAs who actually handled the money or the investments - received payments from mutual funds and distributed to participants; received contributions from employers and deposited with mutual funds; or directed investment changes - these are the types of things, where the TPA actually controls assets, that could result in the TPA being a fiduciary. The way to avoid fiduciary responsibility in these situations is to have the plan administrator perform these functions, or to perform them at the specific (nondiscretionary) direction of the plan administrator.