How Will Your Reviews Change This Year?

Wednesday 2:15pm – 3:15pm

Session Description

HR Professionals often spend a great amount of time and attention on the process needed to effectively review employee performance, whether annually or more often. What if adherence to a prudent process requires a similar level of diligence for the periodic review of your retirement plan? And what if the law that applies to retirement plan fiduciaries supports the notion that an even higher standard applies? This presentation will provide pragmatic thinking on what is required to prudently monitor an organization’s retirement plan as well as best practices that HR Professionals can adopt to comply with the requirements.

Learning Objectives

  1. Brief the legal standards that apply to the administration of retirement plans, for both HR Professionals and retirement plan fiduciaries (to the extent they differ).
  2. Provide best practices for adopting prudent process as well as its documentation (which is key) relative to monitoring a retirement plan.
  3. Update on recent legislation, including the SECURE Act, which became effective in December 2019.

 

Mike Smoots

Mike Smoots works at Qualified Plan Advisors as an attorney with a focus on ERISA services. Previously, Mike was a Vice President with a national recordkeeper. He negotiated agreements with asset managers, reviewing investments for their total cost and revenue sharing—maximizing these payments for retirement plan sponsors. He also reviewed hundreds of retirement plans, ranging in size from $10 million to $20 billion, relative to investment selection, plan design and revenue sharing, as a member of the finance team. Mike graduated from Kansas State University with a bachelor’s degree and earned his juris doctor from the University of Kansas.