Under the Department of Labor’s 2012 final rule to improve transparency of fees and expenses to plan participants, if there is a change to a designated investment alternative's fee and expense information after the plan administrator has furnished the annual disclosure to participants and beneficiaries, is the plan administrator obliged to automatically furnish a new comparative chart to participants and beneficiaries who received one before the change occurred?
The DOL says that it is not. However, fee and expense information must be made available on a website, and information made available on the website must be accurate and updated as soon as reasonably possible following a change, and also should reflect the date on which it was most recently updated.
The DOL says that it is not. However, fee and expense information must be made available on a website, and information made available on the website must be accurate and updated as soon as reasonably possible following a change, and also should reflect the date on which it was most recently updated.
Further, under extraordinary circumstances, the duties of prudence and loyalty under Section 404 of ERISA may require the plan administrator to inform participants and beneficiaries of important changes to investment-related information before the next comparative chart is required under the regulation.
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