Retirement plan sponsors are the first, and most important, line of defense in providing employees with well-managed retirement savings plans.
Ensure Compliance When Documenting Your Retirement Plan Meeting Minutes by Following These 6 Rules!
Are you properly documenting your retirement plan committee meetings? Retirement Plan Committee Meeting Minutes are written records that document the reporting provided, discussion topics reviewed, and the resulting actions and follow-up needed by the committee.
Whether your plan is large or small, simple or complex, you want to ensure that everything is properly documented – including your retirement plan committee meeting minutes.
What Are Retirement Plan Committee Meeting Minutes?
Retirement Plan Committee Meeting Minutes are written records that document all information shared and discussions had during retirement plan committee meetings.
This documentation serves as proof that you and your committee are satisfying your fiduciary responsibilities and acting in the best interest of your plan participants and beneficiaries. It allows you to build trust in your retirement plan, as it helps maintain transparency and provides a concise record of the decision-making process.
Why You Need to Document Your Plan Committee Meeting Minutes
Part of your fiduciary responsibility as a Retirement Plan Committee involves keeping detailed records of every meeting that discusses your company's retirement plan. Accurate and concise meeting minutes will help you in several ways:
Compliance
Plan meeting minutes are a critical part of documenting a prudent process, as required under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Without them, your company could be at risk of legal consequences.
From investment decisions to administrative management of your retirement plan, keeping detailed documentation is an essential part of a retirement plan sponsor’s fiduciary responsibility.
Protection
If the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or the Department of Labor (DOL) ever questions actions taken by your plan, your meeting records will explain the options discussed, actions taken, and reasons for those actions.
Trust
Keeping detailed meeting minutes shows your commitment to open, honest communication and accurate documents. This can help you build trust in the people your retirement plan covers.
Guidance
As time moves on, and new committee members join, organized meeting minutes can be an excellent tool for catching fresh eyes up on the committee’s previous meetings.
The Essential Elements of Effective Meeting Minutes
The efficiency of your Plan Meeting Minutes is crucial. When creating them, it is important to ensure that you are including essential elements like:
- the setting (date, time, and location)
- attendance
- topics of discussion
- decisions
- action items
- concerns
- presentations (who presented and what about?)
- supporting documents covered during the meeting
6 Rules for Documenting Retirement Plan Committee Meeting Minutes
To get the best outcomes from your meetings, here are some rules for producing minutes for your retirement committees:
1. Stay consistent.
Follow a template so that you don't need to start from scratch every time. Keep a consistent format and order of presentation. Here's a good order to follow in your meeting minutes documents:
- Review and approve the previous meeting minutes. This will ensure that your meeting minutes are accurate and reliable for future reference if needed.
- Document what's been accomplished since the previous meeting. You likely created a list of action items in your previous meeting. Document the actions your committee has taken to ensure a record is being kept of these action items being addressed.
- Document what needs to be done. This allows your committee to keep a record of the actions they plan to take and provides a paper trail of the work being done to ensure your retirement plan committee is completing their fiduciary duties.
2. Start with the basics.
The beginning of your meeting minutes should cover the easiest topics:
- Who was in attendance?
- When was the meeting held?
- Where did the meeting take place?
3. Keep it simple.
There's no need to record every word said. Who has time to write or read such a document? Just summarize the events of the meeting, discussions held, solutions offered, and decisions made. If supporting materials were part of the discussion, include a note that supplementary materials have been added to the minutes.
4. Note action items and deadlines.
Productive meetings often end with a number of assigned tasks. Document these tasks and the people assigned to them. Creating this list will help your committee save time when checking the progress made on these tasks in your next meeting.
5. Concentrate on opportunities for improvement.
Discussing a problem with your retirement plan does no good unless you're attempting to remedy it. When documenting issues with the plan, be sure to phrase those issues as opportunities for improvement. For example, instead of simply documenting complaints about fund fees, document the committee's ideas for ways to decrease fees and actions taken.
6. Outsource
Your plan committee is likely full of busy people! Take a little weight off your shoulders by outsourcing your plan committee meeting minutes to experts. Most retirement plan advisors will be more than happy to document and distribute meeting minutes if you request it.
Let SWBC Help You Stay Compliant in Your 401(k) Plan Committee Meeting Minutes
If audited, it is common for the first request to be three years of meeting minutes. Are you confident that your current compliance file documents that you and your committee are fulfilling your fiduciary duties?
Not sure? Let an SWBC advisor review your file and help make sure your meeting minutes are structured properly and provide the needed level of documentation.
Our team is here to make your life easier and help get your compliance file up to speed. Contact an SWBC advisor today.
Let Us Know What You Thought about this Post.
Put your Comment Below.