To better help employers comply with federal employee benefit laws, the Department of Labor's Employees Benefits Security Administration this week released a new interactive Web tool called the ERISA Fiduciary Advisor and an online calculator to compute penalties for overdue annual reports.
The ERISA Fiduciary Advisor gives employers an overview of their basic fiduciary responsibilities. It includes interactive questions and answers and resource materials to help ensure they're maintaining strong fiduciary oversight and have effective controls and programs in place.
The tool provides an overview of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, including the most common mistakes that EBSA finds in investigations. The tool provides links to additional information to assist employers, plan officials and others who provide services to private-sector retirement plans in understanding their responsibilities.
It is part of the agency's continuing efforts to expand a nationwide campaign launched by Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao in 2004 to improve workers' health and retirement security by educating employers and service providers about their fiduciary responsibilities under ERISA.
The online calculator helps companies accurately calculate civil penalties owed under DOL's Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program. It is part of EBSA's compliance assistance program and is available nationwide.
