Institute Educates Plan Advisers About Litigation and Governance

MainStay Investments has launched MainStay’s Retirement Institute, created to assist plan advisers and plan sponsors as they navigate today’s evolving governance landscape.

As part of MainStay’s Retirement Institute efforts, the team has partnered with Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) experts at Groom Law Group to understand trends in ERISA litigation. The team has also engaged with Don Trone, author, founder of 3Ethos and leading authority on governance, to leverage the concept of behavioral and inspirational governance (BIG) to help the defined contribution community understand leadership practices.

Current programs available through MainStay’s Retirement Institute include:

• Fiduciary Physics 101: Best Practices & How to Avoid Unintended Consequences – Applying Newton’s 3rd Law to Fiduciary Best Practices – This continuing education (CE)-approved presentation responds to the increasing pressure on investment committees by offering an overview of core elements that comprise ethical and prudent plan governance.
• Recent Trends in ERISA Litigation – This program, developed in partnership with Groom Law Group, aims at helping large plan advisers and other fiduciaries understand the changing legal landscape, avoid pitfalls, learn best practices and take prudent next steps.
• Fiduciary Liability Insurance (FLI) – This initiative includes an FLI-focused presentation, whitepaper and checklist that offer discussion points for advisers to use with plan sponsors as they consider FLI as part of a comprehensive risk management program.
• Fiduciary Governance Training – This educational content was created for advisers pursuing the Certified 401(k) Professional, C(k)P, designation awarded by The Retirement Advisor University (TRAU) in collaboration with the UCLA Anderson School of Management Executive Education. Plan sponsors can also access this information through The Plan Sponsor University (TPSU), an affiliate of TRAU.

Spearheading these efforts is Jonathan Blaze, national sales director for retirement plans at MainStay, who frequently speaks about fiduciary best practices. According to Blaze, “Money managers have an important part to play in helping make reliable, practical information available to the retirement plan community to assist in creating a culture of inspired governance. With our Retirement Institute, MainStay has made a commitment to continually provide timely and relevant insights to the plan sponsor and defined contribution investment only (DCIO) communities. We aim to provide actionable resources for advisers to use as they assist their plan sponsor clients and prospects to help them navigate the governance landscape.”