Joan Neri Discusses Retirement Plan Committees’ Fiduciary Responsibility With PLANSPONSOR

In “How to Teach Fiduciary Responsibility to Plan Committees,” benefits and executive compensation counsel Joan Neri spoke to PLANSPONSOR about how sponsors of retirement plans must train their retirement plan committee members to understand and execute their fiduciary duties.

“The big thing that the committee needs to be educated about is their fiduciary role under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), and that’s a very high standard that ERISA imposes,” Neri explained.

Regarding testing, Neri said she uses follow-up training to evaluate committee members’ understanding of materials, confirming if they understand and have retained the information. “When I do follow-up training, I often do conduct that in sort of an engaged Q&A format, and it gives me a feeling as to whether or not the members understand,” she noted. “If they don’t, then I drill down.”