Every plan sponsor committee has one.<\/p>\n
The loudest person in the room. The one with the strongest opinions. The one who \u201chas experience\u201d \u2014 usually from a prior employer, a cousin\u2019s plan, or something they once read on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n
And far too often, that person is also the least informed about how fiduciary responsibility actually works.<\/p>\n
ERISA does not reward confidence. It rewards prudence. Courts don\u2019t care who spoke the most, who dominated the meeting, or who shut everyone else down. They care about whether decisions were made through a reasoned, informed process. Volume is not a substitute for diligence.<\/p>\n
The danger isn\u2019t that committee members disagree. Disagreement is healthy. The danger is when one voice crowds out inquiry. When questions stop being asked because \u201cwe\u2019ve always done it this way.\u201d When vendors aren\u2019t challenged because someone insists they\u2019re \u201cfine.\u201d When the committee defers to confidence instead of evidence.<\/p>\n
Fiduciary decisions should be built on data, benchmarking, expert input, and documented deliberation. That means asking uncomfortable questions. It means slowing down decisions that feel rushed. It means being willing to say, \u201cI don\u2019t know \u2014 let\u2019s find out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plan sponsors also need to remember this: fiduciary liability is individual. Being outvoted doesn\u2019t protect you if you sat silently while bad decisions were made. Silence can look a lot like agreement when minutes are reviewed years later.<\/p>\n
Strong committees don\u2019t eliminate dominant personalities. They manage them. A good chair keeps meetings structured, ensures every member is heard, and forces decisions back to process, not personalities. Advisors and ERISA counsel should be facilitators, not spectators.<\/p>\n
The goal isn\u2019t harmony. The goal is governance.<\/p>\n
Because when the loudest voice is wrong, and no one challenges it, the fiduciary risk belongs to everyone in the room.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every plan sponsor committee has one. The loudest person in the room. The one with the strongest opinions. The one who \u201chas experience\u201d \u2014 usually from a prior employer, a cousin\u2019s plan, or something they once read on LinkedIn. And … Continue reading