I have fixed so many retirement plan messes over the years. While most plans operate within the confines of the law, certain plans do not. The few that are, are complete hot messes.
To be honest, aside from one or two third-party administration (TPA) firms being negligent, the fault for the mess belongs to the plan sponsor or the advisor, or the certified public accountant. I will say, my point in fixing messes is not to assign blame. Maybe it’s because as a child, I’d be blamed for quite a few weird things that were not my fault. But probably, I don’t assign blame because it’s irrelevant to the work I must do and the last thing you want to do is have the guilty parties not cooperate in fixing the mess because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.
Assigning blame is great for a lawsuit, not so great when you’re fixing a hot mess.
