Being a plan sponsor is a tough job and the amount of paperwork that goes with it can be overwhelming. The paperwork includes plan documents, summary plan descriptions, amendment, valuations, trusts statements, and payroll.
The fact is that as a plan fiduciary, plan sponsors need to keep good records. It’s important to have correct records when you need to pay former plan participants out, but they need to protect themselves. I have seen too many plan sponsors get into trouble with plan compliance or audits by the Internal Revenue Service or Labor Department because they no longer have copies of the documents they once had.
While spaces for document file cabinets are usually at a minimum, there is a friend out there than can help you avoid losing necessary plan documents and that’s a scanner.
Saving all the necessary plan documents and valuation reports through scanning them as a pdf can help plan sponsors avoid losing documents and save on the need for space of filing cabinets. While plan sponsors should maintain original copies of all plan documents, they can scan the rest. A good scanner won’t set you back and plan sponsors probably have that option with their copier.
Plan sponsors should scan all their plan files as they come in and label them in any easy to understood manner. Creating specific directories on the network for specific plan years is also a great way to keep these things organized.
Something as simple as a scanner can help a plan sponsor exercise their duty as plan fiduciaries.
