How To Evaluate Covered Service Providers Under ERISA
As a retirement plan fiduciary, you have a legal obligation to prudently manage the plan in the sole best interest of plan participants and beneficiaries. Part of this very likely will include delegating responsibilities to specialists, or covered service providers (CSPs). What is a Covered Service Provider?[1]A covered service provider (CSP) is defined as any service provider that enters into a contract or arrangement, written or otherwise, with an ERISA covered plan and reasonably expects to receive $1,000 or more in compensation in connection with the services. CSPs include:
Covered Service Provider Disclosures[2]Under ERISA, CSPs are legally mandated to provide certain disclosures on or before the date that they begin providing the service. These disclosures are:
Evaluating a Covered Service ProviderWhen looking for CSPs, you first need to know what services you actually need. Review every area of the plan and consider your needs; are they legal, accounting, trustee/custodial, investment management, recordkeeping, investment education, or advice? ERISA expects that you have the expertise to carry out your required fiduciary duties. If you or your team do not possess that expertise, you are required to go get that expertise. Once you know what services you are looking for, you can then identify CSPs that provide those services. As you find providers of the services you need, ensure to run them through a due diligence process to get a feel for the breadth and quality of their service offerings. Assessing the satisfaction by calling customer references is a good place to start. After narrowing down your options, give them each identical and complete information regarding the needs of your plan. You will not be able to compare their offerings if they are each working with different information and have a different understanding of your needs. Though CSPs are not required to provide disclosures to you at this point, now is a good time to request the above disclosures. Having the same disclosures on hand from every potential service provider greatly aids in the selection and review process. Also, if you have trouble getting disclosures from a service provider during the selection process, it may reveal what working with that provider on a regular basis would be like. A couple of other items to consider: 1) having the disclosures will also enable you to detect potential conflicts of interest that could affect the services or advice provided to your plan, 2) you need to make sure that any CSP that will handle plan assets has a fidelity bond and 3) all CSPs that require licensing are up-to-date with the authorities with no complaints against them. Reviewing Your Covered Service ProviderFrom time to time, you are required to review the performance of your chosen CSPs. Here is guidance to assist you in this process:
With both the initial selection process and the subsequent reviews, thoroughly document your process and what you learn. It is much easier to demonstrate compliance with required CSP reviews having full documentation of your activities. How We Can HelpDelegating fiduciary responsibilities including evaluating CSPs can be a great solution for plan sponsors who lack time and knowledge of ever-changing requirements to manage a retirement plan. At Stonebridge Financial Group, this is all we've done since our inception back in 2004! Our robust service offering starts with ERISA 3(21) and 3(38) services and is the tip of the iceberg. We are consultants that help you with every aspect of your plan:
We become your outsourced retirement plan officer who dives into the morass of retirement plan details and resolves issues so you don't have to! Please click here to schedule a short call, give us a call at (855) 530-0500 x601 or email info@stonebridgefinancialgroup.com. We look forward to helping your committee successfully fulfill their fiduciary duties with ease and excellence! [1] https://www.frostbrowntodd.com/resources-covered-service-provider-disclosure.html |