The ERISA Advisory Council has provided guidance to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on ERISA fidelity bonds and what the requirements should be in order for a fidelity bond to be DOL compliant.
The Council did not find evidence of uninsured fidelity losses resulting from out of date or improper ERISA related regulations, but did observe more and more evidence of noncompliance; too many plans just were not properly bonded and were not being properly investigated. These occurrences are primarily in the small plan market due to, the Council believes, a lack of education of plan sponsors and commercial service providers of ERISA fidelity bonding rules and regulations.
Recommendations by the Council to fix these problems include the DOL publishing a summary of requirements for security, requirements of the fidelity bond, as well as, information on what is unique and useful about the ERISA fidelity bond specifically. However, the fidelity bond requirement has not been recommended to increase since losses due to fraud or dishonesty exceeding current required amounts are not present in their findings. Click here to learn more.
Colonial Surety Company is a Treasury Listed surety company providing ERISA fidelity bonds. Pension Professionals can enroll in The Partnership Account® for Pension Professionals. The Partnership Account® is relationship between Pension Professionals and Colonial Surety that simplifies the ERISA bonding process and verifying plan sponsor bonding status. It can also help increase productivity for partners.
Pension professionals that partner Colonial Surety to consolidate their plan sponsors’ ERISA bonds into one location and ensure they are Department of Labor compliant. Colonial is rated “A” Excellent by A.M. Best Company and is a long tenured member of ASPPA and NIPA.
Click here to learn how to become a Pension Professional Partner.
If you would like to learn more about purchasing an ERISA Fidelity Bond, or an ERISA fidelity bond package including fiduciary liability insurance and a cyber liability insurance endorsement at no extra cost, click here.