How to Properly Document 2024 Plan Meetings

The Form 5500 filing deadlines are in the rearview mirror, and you and your plan sponsor clients are into the new year in earnest.

Now you can focus on the current plan year and start making sure your client’s 401(k) plan house is in order and operating at the best possible standards.

Maybe you represent 401(k) plan clients with thousands of participants, hundreds or a dozen. No matter what your practice focus, there is a key task that all plan sponsors need to perform: documenting minutes from the meetings of the 401(k) plan oversight committee.

Bradley Bartells

Keeping detailed minutes from the meetings of your client’s 401(k) plan oversight committee serves two important purposes. First, in the event your 401(k) plan is selected for a Department of Labor examination, detailed meeting minutes will show DOL examiners that you are performing your plan oversight duties required by DOL regulations.

Second, if your client or the 401(k) plan is sued by participants, detailed meeting minutes will support your defense that the plan fiduciaries are performing their duties with respect to the plan. Generally speaking, this mostly applies to larger plans, but the slew of 401(k) litigation in recent years has even small plan sponsors aware of legal risks.

To get your 401(k) plan advisement off to a good start in 2024, here are a few simple tips to either use with or provide to your clients on how to keep detailed and effective 401(k) committee meeting minutes.

1. The 401(k) oversight committee should be meeting no less than quarterly to effectively monitor the plan and perform oversight duties. If that’s with you, the adviser, terrific. If not, make sure you discuss and help your client with appropriate scheduling and setup.

2. Make sure the client has someone designated to take minutes during the meetings. Ideally, this person should not be a member of the committee so this person can focus only on taking minutes, rather than participating in committee discussions.

3. On a quarterly basis, meeting minutes should include the following, many of which can benefit from a plan adviser’s expertise:

• Review and approval of the meeting minutes from the prior meeting;
• Discussion and review of economic activity at a national level and impacts to the plan;
• Review and discussion of significant 401(k) articles and publications for hot-topic issues;
• Review plan financial activity during the most recent quarter;
• Review applicable regulatory guidance issued by the DOL and IRS and its impact on the plan;
• Review and approval of required plan amendments;
• Review investment performance with the plan’s investment adviser;
• Discussion and analysis of investments on the watch list;
• Decisions to add/remove investments from the watch list; and
• Ensure fiduciary educational and training sessions are on track.

• Review of the SOC-1 reports for the plan’s key service providers. Typically this will consist of the custodian of the plan’s assets and the payroll provider;
• Review and approval of the annual compliance testing results, including discussion of any corrective actions needed;
• Review and approval of the annual Form 5500 filing;
• If applicable, review and approval of the annual financial statement audit report;
• Annual review noted of service providers (TPA, custodian, investment adviser, CPAs, etc.);
• Cybersecurity training for employees and fiduciaries noted; and
• Review and update of 401(k) plan policies and procedures for needed updates and ratification noted.

Remember, minutes do not need to include a transcript of every word spoken during the meeting. Minutes should document key discussion topics, actions taken and decisions made.

In more than 25 years of helping clients with audits in the employee benefit plan, not-for-profit, and city and local government industries, I know the importance of running well-documented and consistent retirement plan committee meetings. In 2024, let’s help as many plan sponsors as possible follow the best practices for their organizations and, ultimately, their participants.

Bradley Bartells, CPA, is a partner with MUN CPAs in Sacramento, California.