ERISA. Now, ERISA stands for the Employee Retirement Act of 1974, and it's a Federal law that sets standards and minimum standards for most pension plans defined contribution plans, health plans in the non-government sector, and in an aim to protect the employees or their participants within the plan. Now, ERISA covers employer sponsored retirement plans like 401ks and defined benefit pension plans. It does not include all plans however for example, federal, state, and local government plans are excluded. Now it's regulated by several government entities. First, the Department of Labor or the DOL and they monitor the conduct of the plan fiduciary. They also ensure the protection of plan assets and track reporting and disclosure of plan information. The other regulators, the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp and the IRS. The PBGC is a federal entity that guarantees payment on certain pension benefits for defined benefit plans and the IRS is there to evaluate the tax status of each plan. Now, what are the requirements under ERISA? First of all, disclosure. All employers and plan sponsors must periodically disclose the financial health of each plan and make sure that any and all information that would allow employees to make informed decisions about participating in a plan are also disclosed. Fiduciary responsibility. Now, all plans will have at least one fiduciary but usually it has multiple fiduciaries and it will include the plan sponsor, which is the employer and the investment advisors and all other individuals or entities exercising discretion in the administration of the plan. Now, all fiduciaries must run the plan solely in the interest of the employees or the participants. Be diversified, have no conflicts of interest and that create a plan that has reasonable fees. So in other words fiduciaries can't engage in transactions on behalf of the plan that could benefit themselves or other related parties within the plan. And in fact, any fiduciary who falls short of this requirement may be personally liable to restore any losses to the plan or to restore any profits made through improper use of plan assets. Now, most 401(k) plans or profit sharing plans are set up to give participants control over the investments in their accounts, which limits the fiduciary liability for the plan sponsor. And that's another reason in addition to the counting complexity of defined benefit plans, why 401(k) plans have gained in popularity over the recent decades. But even in a 401(k) environment, the plan sponsor or other fiduciaries still have the responsibility to provide a range of appropriate investment options for participants to choose from. And lastly, standards for participation. And that is minimum standards that must be met to maintain favorable tax treatment as determined by the IRS. And if these standards aren't met the IRS can disqualify the plan or assess penalties until they're met. One key standard is that a plan cannot discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees or officers and they must conduct what is called discrimination testing to evaluate the plan on a periodic basis.
