A few years back, the Army unleashed a marketing campaign called “An Army of One.” The Sopranos has an episode called “An Army of One” when Jackie Jr. was whacked by Vito Spatafore.
Around that time, I was working as an attorney for a third party administration firm (TPA). When I started there, there was another attorney and paralegal. The attorney was terminated because he was making too much money and I was making so much less. Then the paralegal was let go. Then everything fell on me including making copies, mailing, almost everything but binding. When I was asking for a raise one December, I claimed I was an Army of One and the head of the company suggested that he was doing some of my work. He knew the truth, but he wanted to limit my raise.
When it comes to being a responsible plan sponsor, you don’t necessarily need an army of people on staff to review the retirement plan or have a committee that actually does nothing in their role. What you really need is an army of one, one person that is dedicated in their role in reviewing the retirement plan and that’s it. A retirement plan committee is a great thing as long as you have one person who is actually competent and responsible in reviewing the plan. That is all you need.