Due Diligence
What The Dot-Com Crash Still Teaches 401k Fiduciaries About The AI Stock Craze
ERISA does not require fiduciaries to predict market tops. It does, however, require a prudent process for selecting and monitoring investments.
Is 401k 3(38) Delegation A Real Risk Transfer Or A Fiduciary Illusion?
That is the line committees cannot afford to miss. They cannot interfere, but they also cannot ignore. Those two verbs define the narrow lane that fiduciaries must stay in if they want delegation to work as intended.
401k Designated Investment Alternatives Demand Fiduciary Discipline
Private equity inside a daily-valued, participant-directed plan introduces structural tension. Illiquid assets must coexist with participant liquidity expectations. Valuations must be estimated where markets do not exist. And governance must bridge that gap without introducing bias or delay.
Meaningful Benchmark Fight Reaches Supreme Court as Private Equity Push Expands 401k Risk
Private equity investments raise a second layer of fiduciary difficulty because they are not simply harder to compare. They are also harder to value, harder to redeem, and harder to explain to participants who may assume daily-priced plan options operate under familiar public-market rules.
When Index Construction Becomes a 401k Fiduciary Risk
The S&P 500 looks diversified—until you see how few stocks actually drive the returns. As concentration rises, index construction itself is becoming a growing 401k fiduciary risk.
The Fiduciary Dilemma That Refuses to Die: The Conflicted Merit of 3(38) and 3(21)
Seasoned advisors caution plan sponsors not to confuse delegation with disappearance. Every fiduciary duty can be shared. None can be erased.
How Fiduciaries Implement 401k Risk Capacity
The key is embedding quantitative prompts inside onboarding experiences so participants perceive personalization while fiduciaries collect the data they actually need.
Should The 401k Fiduciary Use Risk Tolerance or Risk Capacity?
Risk capacity anchors 401k advice in hard data—income stability, net worth, liquidity, and retirement timeline. Unlike tolerance, which shifts with market moods, capacity reflects what participants can afford to lose, aligning with ERISA’s fiduciary duties.
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