Time to catch up on those 401k plan committee meeting minutes!

Congratulations! You got past another October 15 filing date for the Form 5500 for your 401k plan. Now you can focus on the current plan year and start making sure you have your 401k plan house in order for the end of this year.

Maybe your 401k plan has just 10 or 15 participants in it, or maybe it is a large plan subject to annual audit requirements. Either way, there is a key task that plan sponsors of 401k plans of all sizes need to perform – documenting minutes from the meetings of the 401k plan oversight committee.

Keeping detailed minutes from the meetings of your 401k plan oversight committee serves two important purposes:

- In the event your 401k plan is selected for a Department of Labor examination, detailed meeting minutes will show the DOL examiners that you are performing your plan oversight duties required by DOL regulations.

- If your company or the 401k plan is sued by participants, detailed meeting minutes will support your defense that the plan fiduciaries are performing their duties with respect to the plan.

Here are a few simple tips for keeping detailed and effective 401k committee meeting minutes.

1.      Your 401k oversight committee should be meeting no less than quarterly to effectively monitor the plan and perform oversight duties.

2.      Make sure you have someone designated to take minutes during the meetings of your 401k plan committee. Ideally, this person would not be a member of the committee so this person can just focus on taking minutes and not being a part of the committee discussions.

3.      On a quarterly basis, meeting minutes should include the following:

• Review and approval of the meeting minutes from the prior meeting.
• Discussion and review of economic activity at a national level and impacts to the Plan.
• Review and discuss significant 401k articles and publications for hot topic issues.
• Review plan financial activity during the most recent quarter.
• Review applicable regulatory guidance issued from DOL & IRS and impact on the Plan.
• Review and approval of required Plan amendments.
• Review investment performance with your Plan’s investment advisor.
• Discussion and analysis of investments on the watch list.
• Decisions to add/remove investments from watch list.
• Conduct fiduciary educational and training sessions.

4. In addition to the above, the follow items should be documented as performed annually:

• Review of the SOC-1 reports for the Plan’s key service providers. Typically this will consist of the custodian of the Plan’s assets and your payroll provider.
• Review and approve the annual compliance testing results including discussion of any corrective actions needed.
• Review and approve the annual Form 5500 filing.
• If applicable, review and approve the annual financial statement audit report.
• Perform annual review of service providers (TPA, custodian, investment advisor, CPAs, other).
• Conduct cybersecurity training for employees and fiduciaries.
• Review and update 401k plan policies and procedures for needed updates and ratification.

Remember, minutes do not need to include a transcript of every word spoken during the meeting. Minutes should document key discussion topics, actions taken and decisions made.

Have other 401k questions? Let’s talk!