Principal Releases New Fiduciary Guide

Understanding and Managing Fiduciary Responsibility. A Guide for Plan Sponsors helps employers navigate the regulatory landscape to ensure they are meeting their responsibilities and making educated plan choices.   The new guide walks through the various tasks a fiduciary may perform and provides information regarding the requirements under ERISA that apply to fiduciaries.

Highlights of the fiduciary guide include:

• The role of an ERISA fiduciary
• Making investment selections
• The difference between participant education and advice
• ERISA compliance requirements
• Managing fiduciary responsibility.

Principal says the fiduciary guide compliments the Principal Due Diligence Program and Principal Blueprint programs, which help employers meet their fiduciary obligations by designing an investment platform for their retirement plans with ongoing monitoring to help ensure high quality investment offerings and premiere investment managers.

“At The Principal, we understand that fiduciary responsibilities can seem overwhelming, if not even scary at times; especially in this uncertain investment and regulatory climate,” says Randy Welch, Retirement & Investor Services—The Principal. “This guide, compiled by compliance experts, is part of our ongoing commitment to help employers understand their responsibilities in a comprehensive and user-friendly way to ensure that the plan is meeting the needs of employers and their employees.”   

“The end goal for employers is to help employees build a successful retirement savings,” continued Welch. “The Principal Due Diligence Program and the new fiduciary guide help make the employer’s job as plan sponsor a little easier, so that they can focus on running their business.”