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Time Well Spent: 6 Hours a Year to Serve on Your Company’s 401(k) Fiduciary Committee

Last Updated: January 28, 2025

Investing 6 Hours: Why Your Role on the 401(k) Committee Matters

8,760. That’s how many hours there are in a year. With that in mind, can we ask for just six of those hours—uninterrupted and focused—to help your employees get on track for retirement?

 

Between six to ten hours is approximately how much time it should take to serve on your company’s 401(k) plan fiduciary committee every year. Four quarterly meetings, an hour each. Two additional hours of continuing education to stay sharp. If you’re the committee chair, add one more hour of prep per meeting—bringing the total to ten hours a year.

 

This isn’t just about fulfilling your fiduciary duty, though it’s important. It’s about something much bigger: leveraging your experience as an executive to make a lasting impact on the financial security of your employees, their families, and your community.

 

Financial security starts with saving, but here’s the truth: most people aren’t saving enough, and it’s been this way for too long. This insecurity increases stress and anxiety, which ripples into every aspect of life—relationships, productivity, and even physical health. 

 

The 401(k) plan is one of the most powerful tools we have to combat this. It encourages the habit of saving by making it automatic— “pay yourself first.” Without this system, many employees would struggle to build financial stability for the future.

 

But here’s the challenge: For a 401(k) to truly deliver on its potential, it requires careful oversight, and at least six hours of your time. Experienced, engaged executives are needed to ensure the plan works as intended—helping participants save enough, avoiding excessive fees, and earning the returns needed to build lasting security.

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How to Make the Most of the Time

Serving on the 401(k) committee isn’t like your other responsibilities. It’s not about the company’s bottom line or hitting corporate targets. Instead, it’s about setting the company’s interests aside for six hours a year to focus solely on your employees. That’s the essence of fiduciary duty.

 

Unfortunately, this responsibility is often treated as extracurricular—something tacked onto an already packed schedule. Performance reviews don’t measure it. Incentive plans don’t reward it. And the scrutiny given to the retirement plan often falls short of the scrutiny applied to other business functions.

 

That’s where you come in. Your skills as an accomplished executive make you uniquely qualified to advocate for your employees. But to do this effectively, you need to approach these six hours with the same rigor you bring to other critical aspects of your role.

 

Treat your committee work with intention. Use this time to ask the right questions:

#1

  • What is the goal of the plan? Are employees on track for retirement?

#2

  • What are the key performance standards? How do we measure success?

#3

  • Who is accountable? Are the internal parties and vendors involved with the plan meeting expectations, and when do we make a change?
  •  

Your time is valuable. So is the financial future of your employees. By dedicating just six focused hours a year to this work, you can make a profound difference in their lives—and in the strength of your company’s retirement plan.

 

Let’s make those hours count!

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Learn How to Be an Effective 401(k) Fiduciary Committee Member for Your Employees

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WRITTEN BY

Pension Consultants, Inc.