Over the past two decades, participant class action lawsuits—particularly those involving ERISA-covered defined contribution plans—have created ongoing challenges for plan sponsors and fiduciaries. Decisions regarding the hiring and monitoring of recordkeepers and trustees, along with the selection and oversight of investment options, are increasingly influenced by litigation risk concerns.

This webinar recording dives into the core fiduciary duties of prudence and loyalty, highlighting common litigation triggers such as excessive fees, fund selection and performance, and company stock. It also explores emerging areas of concern, including alternative investments, cryptocurrency, and cybersecurity.

Viewers will gain valuable insights into:

Ideal for plan sponsors, fiduciaries, and benefits professionals, this webinar recording provides practical, actionable guidance to help navigate today’s complex legal landscape and strengthen fiduciary oversight.

To download a copy of the transcript, click here.

Additional CAPTRUST Resources

Our 2025 Series:

Our 2024 Series:

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This is a strategic webinar recording designed for plan sponsors who seek to improve the value and performance of their retirement plans. This presentation highlights how thoughtful plan design can help drive key business objectives—including tax efficiency, employee retention, cost control, and regulatory compliance.

Topics covered include:

Whether you’re aiming to simplify administration, attract top talent, or maximize contributions for key employees, this webinar recording offers actionable insights to help you design a plan that works—for today and for the future.

Additional CAPTRUST Resources:

Our 2024 series:

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With increasing and varied litigation, it has become more difficult for retirement plan fiduciaries to manage their risk. Best practices have become more challenging as plaintiffs’ attorneys find new ways to sue plan sponsors, while at the same time fiduciary liability insurance has become less comprehensive and more expensive.

What’s a fiduciary to do? Join CAPTRUST and some of the leading experts in the field of fiduciary risk management as we provide practical solutions to these problems and help plan sponsors become more confident in managing their fiduciary risk.

Webinar Recap—Practical Playbook for Fiduciary Risk Management in 2024

Senior consultant Lisa Keith moderates a deep-dive discussion with three specialists who live and breathe plan-sponsor risk: Encore Fiduciary president Dan Aronowitz, Kilpatrick Townsend ERISA attorney Sterling Perkinson, and CAPTRUST defined-contribution practice leader Jennifer Doss. Together they outline where today’s biggest exposures lurk—and how committees of any size can blunt them.

The Current Risk Landscape

Regulator attention is up. IRS and DOL audits increasingly target late contribution deposits, missing-participant procedures, and cybersecurity controls—issues that crop up in small and jumbo plans alike.

Litigation keeps evolving. Beyond “excess-fee” suits, plaintiffs now attack conservative target-date performance, use of forfeitures, even allegedly low record-keeping fees that sacrifice service quality. Two recent BlackRock target-date cases underscore how meeting minutes and IPS language can be weaponized.

Six Habits of Lawsuit-Resistant Committees

Document everything. Courts look for robust agendas, pre-meeting packets, probing questions, and watch-list follow-ups—not rubber-stamp approvals.

Benchmark on a cadence. Conduct annual fee reviews or RFPs and keep evidence of any renegotiations or share-class moves.

Police performance with the right yardstick. Define benchmarks that match each fund’s risk profile before plaintiffs pick their own in hindsight.

Close the forfeiture gap. Spell out in the plan document how forfeitures are used (expenses vs. employer contributions) to avoid fiduciary-duty claims.

Outsource smartly. Shifting investment oversight to a 3(38) manager or administration tasks to a 3(16) fiduciary reduces, but never erases, your liability—monitor those providers and confirm they carry adequate insurance.

Match coverage to exposure. Fiduciary-liability policies now scrutinize fee structures and investment lineups; tailor limits and deductibles to current claim trends and insist on indemnification from outsourced fiduciaries.

Key Take-Home Messages

Process over perfection: Courts and underwriters reward committees that can prove a thoughtful, repeatable methodology—even when markets or expenses move against them.

Plan documents are risk tools: Venue-selection, arbitration, and clear IPS language can limit where and how claims are filed.

Insurance isn’t a silver bullet: It supplements (not replaces) diligent oversight, timely corrections via IRS/DOL programs, and a culture of continual improvement.

Learn about managing this fiduciary risk checklist to update your fiduciary calendar, shore up documentation gaps, and brief senior leadership before the next audit letter—or plaintiff’s subpoena—arrives.

To download a copy of the transcript, click here.

Additional Resources

The Importance of Fiduciary Training

2024 Fiduciary Training Series, Part 1: Roles and Responsibilities

2024 Fiduciary Training Series, Part 2: Plan Governance

One often-overlooked aspect of qualified retirement plan operations is the need for a prudent and comprehensive governance process. Plan rules and procedures are often contained in a series of governing plan documents and service agreements. Plan officials are faced with analyzing and interpreting numerous documents from multiple entities. By creating a governance process, plan officials can help ensure plan operations are consistent and adhere to fiduciary standards.

Jenny Kiffmeyer, JD, and COO of Retirement Learning Center covers several topics, including:

Additional CAPTRUST Resources:

Our 2024 series:

On April 2, President Trump announced wide-reaching tariffs for the U.S.’s global trading partners. These tariffs mark a major shift in U.S. trade policy, and raise important questions for consumers, corporations, and investors. Watch CAPTRUST Chief Investment Officer Mike Vogelzang and the Investment Committee in this webinar recording as they discuss the recent tariff announcements and how they are evaluating the investment implications.

To watch our webinar recording, click here.

To download a copy of the transcript, click here.

A fiduciary is a person or organization who prudently takes care of money or assets for another person or organization. Under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, also known as ERISA, retirement plan sponsors are fiduciaries of their retirement plans. This means they are legally bound to act solely in the best interest of their plan participants. Fiduciaries who fail to fulfill that duty can face penalties and personal liability for plan losses.

Topics covered include:

Additional CAPTRUST Resources:

Fiduciary Best Practices for Plan Sponsors Slide Deck

The Importance of Fiduciary Training

For a copy of the transcript, click here.

Our 2024 series:

Whether you’re in the early stages of your estate planning goals or looking to fine-tune an existing plan, this webinar offers actionable insights to help you craft a successful estate planning strategy. Explore the key elements of estate planning and learn how to protect what you’ve built for future generations.

Topics covered include:

Additional CAPTRUST Resources

CAPTRUST Estate and Legacy Planning Webinar Presentation (downloadable PDF)

The 25 Documents You Need (downloadable PDF)

10 Tips for Estate Planning (video)

Valuation Discounts for Gift and Estate Tax Savings (article)

An Introduction to Estate Planning (article)

For a copy of the transcript, click here.

Social engineering attacks—such as phishing and romance scams—are now more common than ever. These scams put retirement plan participants at risk of losing their entire account balance. How can plan sponsors help participants protect themselves from scammers and other malicious actors? Watch our webinar recording to learn about common scams and what sponsors can do about them.

Topics covered include:

This webinar recording is moderated by Lisa Keith, CAPTRUST senior manager of plan consulting, with a panel discussion by:

To download a copy of the transcript click here.

Additional Resources

Webinar Presentation Deck

The Importance of Fiduciary Training

2024 Fiduciary Training Series, Part 1: Roles and Responsibilities

2024 Fiduciary Training Series, Part 2: Plan Governance

2024 Fiduciary Training, Part 3: Risk Management

As many plan sponsors prepare for their upcoming enrollment seasons, it’s the perfect time to review key practices for participant education. In this webinar recording, CAPTRUST explores how financial planning, tax planning, and personalized advice can be integrated into education efforts to maximize the value participants receive from their NQDC plans.

Topics covered will include:

Webinar Highlights—Turning NQDC Education into Measurable Engagement

Senior Director Jason Stevens leads a round-table with wealth-planning expert Phil Dunger and CAPTRUST-at-Work head Chris Whitlow to surface what actually moves the needle on nonqualified deferred-comp (NQDC) participation. Drawing on data from Newport, PSCA, and real-world experience with more than 500 plan sponsors, the panel pinpoints three ingredients of a high-impact communication strategy:

Design + Expectations

Shift from Passive Education to Active Advice

Embed NQDC in Holistic Financial Planning

Action Checklist

Implementing even one of these enhancements can transform an NQDC plan from a “nice-to-have” perk into a strategic talent magnet that builds executive loyalty while helping them optimize taxes and retirement readiness.

For a copy of the transcript, click here.

Topics covered include:

Whether or not your organization currently has a retirement plan advisor, this roundtable discussion provides an executive summary of the top issues a plan sponsor should be considering, plus an in-depth comparison of what other companies in the insurance industry are doing for their retirement programs and strategies.

What You’ll Learn in the Discussion

Senior Marketing Director Greg Middleton moderates a data-driven conversation with investment strategist Sam Kirby and senior advisors Jeff Lowing, Paul Owen, and Andrew Shim. Drawing on quarterly reviews with nearly 100 insurance-industry retirement plans representing $34 billion in assets, the panel distills three core themes every retirement-plan sponsor should have on the radar.

1. Market & Economic Backdrop

U.S. large-cap equities notched double-digit gains in Q1, powered by AI-led mega-caps, while interest-rate-sensitive assets such as real estate and core bonds lagged. The team unpacks why this rally differs from the 1999–2000 tech boom—today’s “Magnificent Seven” are delivering real earnings growth—and explains how a higher-for-longer rate environment is reshaping fixed-income strategy for insurers.

2. Implications for Insurance-Company Plans

With meaningful yield back on the table, life and P&C carriers are repositioning surplus portfolios and liability-driven investment (LDI) programs. Higher rates have boosted pension funded status and opened a competitive window for annuity sales, giving sponsors strategic choices on glide-path design, credit exposure, and long-duration hedging.

3. Emerging Priorities for 2024

The panel highlights hot-button items surfacing in committee rooms: integrating guaranteed lifetime-income options inside 401(k)s, weighing Roth in-plan conversions ahead of potential tax-code changes, and taking advantage of SECURE 2.0 provisions such as student-loan matching. They also explore practical AI use-cases—from claims automation to hyper-targeted participant communications—that could boost efficiency and engagement across the enterprise.

Why It Matters

Whether your organization already works with an advisor or is evaluating new partners, this roundtable pairs peer benchmarking with forward-looking insights. You’ll walk away with actionable takeaways on balancing risk and yield, preparing for a volatile election-year economy, and designing benefit programs that help both veteran executives and next-generation talent retire with confidence.

Additional Resource:

To download a copy of the transcript, click here.