Been There ...
Lots of things don’t matter ’til they do. Like liability.
You can get liability advice from your co-workers and from your plan’s service providers. They mean well and want to be supportive, but the reality is this: they don’t have the risk; it’s not their problem and they don’t have the experience either.
I know the risk. Twice it happened to me, despite over two decades without a whisper of a complaint.
First lesson: when the complaint appears, you don’t just fight the complaint — you fight the legal system and its costs. I spent a lot on legal fees. They could not prove guilt. I could not prove innocence. You settle.
The second time, I knew what to expect, wrote my own response without lawyers and waited. The commissioner himself called, said my documents were the best he had seen in twenty years and asked to use my work as training for his staff.
I know what you are told. I sold 401(k)s for years, led a regional broker-dealer, founded a Registered Investment Advisor, and earned the Accredited Investment Fiduciary designation. I sat in sales meetings, made sales, and participated in oversight reviews.
Only after being challenged did I see the gap between what you are told and what you need. It motivated me to spend over a decade building the training and tools you need to be safe.
Here’s some of what I learned. Proof matters. Your opponents count on you not having the evidence you need and therefore giving in, not because you did anything wrong, but because you are reduced to arguing – risky and far more expensive for you than them. You risk your savings, your career, your reputation. So you pay to end it.
But conclusive evidence prepared in advance at no cost to you destroys their leverage. The head of a regulatory agency who made his career finding fault told me my documents were conclusive. That’s not words — that’s money. Lots of it. No lawyers billing per pound of paper. No arguing about what, exactly.
Let your lawyer take the credit. You keep your money. You okay with that?
(shh … big secret: your accusers never apologize, never admit you are innocent, they slink away when there is no money left in suing.)
Your cost? Zero.
Your time? Minimal.