PLANSPONSOR - November/December 2024 - 27

he says. Further, he advises watching the committee's demographics.
" Oftentimes, committees are made up of people over age
50, " he says. " If everyone sitting around the boardroom is over 50,
we don't really have a healthy perspective of what somebody who's
25 is thinking about the retirement plan. So if there's someone ...
who is sub-40, who can [add] a perspective and who's attentive to
the decisions that need to be made, those are great additions. "
Governmental Plan Committees
Kristine Sciangula, plan administrator for
Suffolk County, New York, says her retirement
plan committee, the Suffolk County
Public Employees Deferred Compensation
Board, has 16 voting board members: Each
of the eight labor unions representing county
workers has a representative on the board, and
there are eight management representatives.
Suffolk County's primary retirement
on their accomplishments over the past 30 days.
Sciangula notes that the meetings incorporate education.
" The
For a while after the SECURE [Setting Every Community Up for
Retirement Enhancement] 2.0 Act of 2022 was passed, she says,
an hour of each meeting was dedicated to going through the
provisions, one by one. She even gave the members quizzes to
take to test their knowledge. In addition, she has helped compose
a list of basic questions that board members
could have to answer about
should ever be sued.
the plan if it
committee
doesn't require
expertise,
plan is a defined benefit plan, which is
mandatory for most employees. A small
population may participate in a defined
contribution plan instead. The primary plans
are run by the state. Additionally, the county
offers a supplementary and voluntary 457(b) plan.
Union appointments to the committee are made by each
but I think it
does require
a diverse
experience. "
union's president, while the management appointments are made
by the county executive, an elected position. The county's by-laws
demand that one of the management representatives be from the
county comptroller's office and one from the county's information
technology department, she says.
" Those two departments are essential in the functioning of
the plan, including handling payroll, so having people [from]
those departments who are knowledgeable of both the operations
of those departments as well as the plan's needs is extremely
important, " Sciangula says.
Suffolk County's board members on both the union and
management sides come from various county departments and
careers. Sciangula says all employees have someone they work
with in their building, department or union representing them
on the board. " [Employees] know they can go to that person with
questions about the plan, or to bring any suggestions to the full
board, rather than just having a 1-800 number to call, " she says.
" That arrangement gives me as an administrator, as well as the
rest of the board, the ability to hear what employees are thinking.
... If something isn't working or is confusing to employees, we
hear about it quickly and can work to remedy it. "
Sciangula says she encourages those making the board
appointments to choose people who have an interest
in the
retirement plan, as well as those who have the time to commit to
attending monthly meetings and training sessions.
Besides the board's monthly meetings, subcommittees
convene in between. Sciangula cites subcommittees that work on
the plan documents, on investments and on participant education,
respectively. These groups report, at the full board meetings,
Key Things to Learn
Committee members must remember their
fiduciary responsibility, especially if they get
called to court as a witness, Olsen says, adding
that, if a plan committee member claims
in court that he did not know his fiduciary
status, that defense will likely not protect him.
PlanPILOT gives new committee members a
form to sign when they are first appointed
and all members a form to sign annually, to
remind them of their fiduciary status.
Sciangula agrees that educating board
members regularly is important. The sponsor advises that
they attend at least three training conferences a year. Suffolk
County is a member of the National Association of Government
Defined Contribution Administrators, so board members are
encouraged to participate in webinars and training conferences
that NAGDCA holds.
The board also participates in an annual fiduciary training
session presented by the legal and compliance team from its
recordkeeper, T. Rowe Price.
In terms of the knowledge that board members need to
properly fulfill their obligations and fiduciary duties, Sciangula
says, it boils down to two categories.
The first is basic retirement plan administration and fiduciary
knowledge. Members must understand, for
instance,
which laws the county's plans are subject to; the differences
between the various plan types; the investment vehicles offered
in the retirement plans; revenue-sharing agreements; and the
responsibilities of the board vs. the county vs. the recordkeeper.
As a public plan, Suffolk County's is not subject to ERISA,
but it must comply with the bylaws of the county government.
Newer board members need to learn how each type of
investment works, even if they had no part in choosing the
investments, Sciangula says.
The second category of education, she says, relates to the
information that allows the committee to make better decisions
and prevent or remediate plan issues.
" The more that [committee] members know about how we
operate, how our recordkeeper operates, why we're doing what
we're doing in comparison with other plans, and what courts are
saying about plans that end up in litigation, the more equipped
we are to make the right decisions, " she says. " The aspects of this
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