ERISA Fiduciary Services

ERISA asks a great deal of the people who run a company retirement plan, and it asks it of them personally. Old Slip Capital serves as fiduciary advisor to plan sponsors from 40 Wall Street, Floor 28, New York, NY 10005, supplying the investment research, written process and records that the standard requires.

The four duties every committee is measured against

• Loyalty — decisions made solely in the interest of participants and their beneficiaries.
• Prudence — the care, skill and diligence of someone familiar with these matters, demonstrated through a repeatable process.
• Diversification — an investment menu built to minimize the risk of large losses.
• Following plan documents — operating the plan the way its documents and the IPS actually say it will be operated.

How we discharge them with you

• Investment menu design, fund selection and quarterly performance monitoring
• A written Investment Policy Statement and an oversight committee charter
• Committee agendas and minutes that document the reasoning behind decisions
• Annual fee and plan benchmarking against comparable plans
• Recordkeeper and provider oversight, including service and fee reviews
• Fiduciary training for the committee and education for participants
• A secure online fiduciary briefcase holding the full documentary record

Independent, with no product to sell

Old Slip Capital is an independent registered investment advisory firm. We are not a recordkeeper, fund company or insurer, and we are not affiliated with one — so the menus we build and the providers we monitor are chosen on the plan's behalf.

Common questions

What are ERISA fiduciary services?

ERISA fiduciary services are the advisory services a plan sponsor hires to help meet its duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act: prudent selection and monitoring of plan investments, ensuring fees are reasonable for the services received, oversight of the recordkeeper and other providers, and keeping written evidence that the process was followed. The advisor can serve as a 3(21) co-fiduciary or as a 3(38) discretionary investment manager.

Who is a fiduciary under ERISA?

Anyone with discretion over plan assets or plan administration. In most companies that means the named plan sponsor plus the people who actually make decisions — commonly the CFO, the head of HR and the members of the retirement plan committee. Fiduciary status comes from what a person does, not from a title, and it carries personal liability.

Does hiring an advisor remove our fiduciary liability?

It never removes it entirely. Selecting and monitoring the advisor is itself a fiduciary act. But delegating investment decisions to a 3(38) investment manager shifts responsibility for those decisions, and a documented process with a knowledgeable co-fiduciary is the strongest defense a committee can have.

What documentation should a plan committee keep?

A written Investment Policy Statement, a committee charter, dated meeting minutes recording what was reviewed and why each decision was made, fee benchmarking results, provider service agreements and fee disclosures, and records of participant education. We maintain these for our clients in a secure online fiduciary briefcase.