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July 18, 2012 at 12:11 PM
The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) announced Wednesday that it will provide a Web-based tool for plan sponsors who wish to obtain fiduciary relief for a service provider’s failure to comply with the department’s plan-level fee disclosure rule, better known as 408(b)(2).
The final 408(b)(2) regulation, which took effect on July 1, includes a provision to protect plan sponsors or other responsible plan fiduciaries from liability for a breach of their fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) when, unbeknownst to the plan sponsor, a service provider failed to comply with the regulation’s comprehensive disclosure requirements.
As the EBSA explains, if a plan sponsor discovers that required information has not been furnished, “the sponsor must notify the department, by regular mail or electronically, when efforts to obtain the undisclosed information from a service provider are not successful.”
The final 408(b)(2) rule continues to permit paper or electronic submissions, but enhances the existing procedures by providing a dedicated P.O. box address and a Web-based tool that EBSA says will assist plan sponsors in ensuring that all required information is submitted.
