Under the Department of Labor’s 2012 final rule to improve transparency of fees and expenses to plan participants, must a plan administrator furnish a single, unified comparative chart or may multiple charts, supplied by the plan's various service providers or investment issuers, be furnished to participants and beneficiaries?
According to the DOL in the final rule, plan administrators may furnish multiple comparative charts or documents that are supplied by the plan’s service providers or investment issuers, provided that:
According to the DOL in the final rule, plan administrators may furnish multiple comparative charts or documents that are supplied by the plan’s service providers or investment issuers, provided that:
- all of those materials are furnished to participants and beneficiaries at the same time in a single mailing or transmission; and
- the comparative charts or documents are designed to facilitate a comparison among designated investment alternatives available under the plan.
However, as stated in the preamble, permitting individual investment issuers, or others, to separately distribute comparative documents reflecting their particular investment alternatives would not facilitate a comparison of the core investment information and therefore would not satisfy the plan administrator's obligations.
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