DOL Places Renewed Focus on Fiduciary Compliance Programs

In part, she said, housing the programs under OCI "is probably intended to promote uniformity in voluntary compliance programs across the agency by centralizing oversight. It appears that the new office is at the DOL level, rather than under EBSA."

The two programs include:

• The Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program, which explains what corrective action is required and provides a mechanism for relief from enforcement actions and excise taxes under the Internal Revenue Code for 19 separate categories of fiduciary violations.
• The Delinquent Filer Voluntary Correction Program, which explains the steps plan administrators who are filing overdue mandatory annual reports can take to avoid higher civil penalty assessments.

Under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, "fiduciaries are responsible for operating employee benefit plans solely in the interest of participants and beneficiaries," EBSA said.

"It appears that the DOL wants to put greater emphasis on voluntary correction programs," Fred Reish, partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath's Los Angeles office, told ThinkAdvisor on Wednesday. "That encourages employers to discover and correct their plan failures, for example, fiduciary breaches or prohibited transactions."

OCI focuses on helping enforcement agencies more effectively use online resources to deliver information and compliance assistance, Labor explained.

OCI was launched in August, when Worker.gov and Employer.gov were also launched to provide information about workers' rights and the responsibilities of firms toward their workers.

— Check out DOL Releases Proposed Rule on MEPs on ThinkAdvisor.