What do I REALLY need to know?1. As of July 1, 2012, sponsors are required to annually

disclose certain investment and fee-related information to all employees eligible to participate in the plan (including eligible non-participants) and beneficiaries.

2. If investment information comes from multiple sources, the sponsor is required to provide a consolidated disclosure to all employees eligible to participate in the plan (including eligible non-participants) and beneficiaries.

3. Fiduciary responsibility for compliance with this regulation rests solely on the plan sponsor, regardless of whether the provider fulfills the disclosure distribution.

What’s MassMutual doing?1. As your service provider, or one of your service providers,

the MassMutual Retirement Services Division has information you need and is making it available to you through our Notice Creator tool.

2. The Notice Creator tool enables you to build a disclosure notification that includes all the standard disclosure information required by Department of Labor regulations while simultaneously gearing the documentation specifically toward your plan type.

3. For sponsors who do not go in and create disclosure documentation using the Notice Creator tool, MassMutual will automatically produce a draft notice and publish that draft notice to your plan sponsor and participant websites.

Do MassMutual’s actions cover my bases with regard to ERISA 404(a)(5) compliance?No, not completely. MassMutual’s actions are not adequate to fulfill your fiduciary obligations under 404(a)(5) for two reasons:1. While MassMutual is providing the tool for you to

you to create required disclosure documentation,you to create required disclosure documentation, it is your responsibility to ensure that documentation is appropriately furnished to all employees eligible to participate in the plan (including those who are not currently participating) and beneficiaries.

2. Our disclosure document will not contain any information on investments from other recordkeepers or investment providers that you may need to consolidate with our information (i.e. investments not recordkept by the MassMutual Retirement Services Division).

So, what should I do?MassMutual STRONGLY recommends that, in order to ensure you completely meet your fiduciary obligations under 404(a)(5), you do the following:1. Use MassMutual’s Notice Creator tool to build your

annual disclosure notification for each plan your organization sponsors.

2. Determine if you have supplemental fees to those disclosed by MassMutual Retirement Services. If so, consolidate the disclosure information MassMutual prepares with information from your other service provider(s). If not, you may use the disclosure document MassMutual Retirement Services prepares as-is.

3. Distribute1 appropriate disclosure information to all employees eligible to participate in the plan (including eligible non-participants) and beneficiaries.

Contact your MassMutual Retirement Services account professional to talk more about your options and decide on the best course of action for your plan.

Complying with ERISA 404(a)(5) Participant Fee Disclosure

1 Should you elect to pursue electronic distribution of disclosure material, the Department of Labor has outlined specific guidelines you must follow. Contact your MassMutual Retirement Services account professional with any questions.

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A deeper dive...this is how our ERISA experts would say all the stuff on the previous page.

Sponsor Obligations under 404(a)(5) Participant Fee Disclosure

As of July 1, 2012, sponsors are required to provide, on an annual basis, certain investment- and fee-related information to all eligible participants and beneficiaries. While many service providers will offer administrative services to help sponsors comply with this requirement, sponsors need to understand their responsibilities under these regulations.

Sponsors have certain fiduciary responsibilities to ensure that their ERISA-governed qualified plans satisfy certain regulatory requirements. Although sponsors hire service providers to perform certain administrative functions to help them comply with these requirements, sponsors still retain fiduciary responsibility for the actions performed by the service provider and must monitor and review these actions to ensure compliance with ERISA obligations.

Although many service providers provide services to help sponsors comply with participant fee disclosure rules, there are certain requirements that providers may not be able to help with due to the nature of such plan features or insufficient data in the provider’s recordkeeping system. Below are some of the items associated with participant fee disclosure that sponsors need to understand in order to fully satisfy their fiduciary responsibilities.

1. Outside Assets – If the plan has assets recordkept outside of its core service provider, it is up to the sponsor to consolidate each provider’s participant fee disclosure information and provide to eligible participants and beneficiaries in an aggregated format.

2. 403(b) Sponsors – If assets in an ERISA 403(b) plan are recordkept by multiple providers (e.g. new cash flows are being administered by MassMutual, but prior investments were unable to move to MassMutual due to individual contracts administered by another insurance or mutual fund company), then the sponsor is responsible to aggregate each provider’s participant fee disclosure information and provide to eligible participants in an aggregated format.

3. Mailing of Participant Disclosure – Sponsors have the responsibility to ensure that all required employees and beneficiaries receive their disclosure. Sponsors have the obligation to ensure that all eligible participants, including those who have elected not to participate in the plan, receive such disclosure, even if the mailing service is provided by the service provider. In addition, sponsors must ensure that correct addresses are provided and should carefully review any information they provide to their service provider. Due to the importance of providing this information to participants, it may make sense for sponsors to handle the mailing of these disclosures instead of relying on their service provider. In either case, the sponsor maintains the fiduciary liability to ensure that all participants and beneficiaries receive disclosure information at the correct address.

4. Life Insurance in the Plan – Some plans offer life insurance as an investment in the plan. Although there is no specific guidance in the regulations surrounding life insurance policies in a plan, some sponsors may want to add additional information to the disclosure to provide more information to those participants who have (or may elect to have) a policy under the plan. It would be up to the sponsor to add such additional information prior to the mailing of the disclosure.

It is important for sponsors to understand what they need to know to comply with 404(a)(5) Participant Fee Disclosure and what level of services their providers provide to them. Ultimately, it is the sponsor’s fiduciary responsibility to comply with these requirements, even if their service provider(s) provide ministerial services designed to help sponsors meet these requirements.

This content is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal and/or tax advice. Please consult your own advisor regarding the specific application of the information set forth herein to your own plan.