At work and at home, one of the worst things I ever did was make a mistake and not accept responsibility for it. Instead of owning up, I would make excuses, turning the fight over the mistake into a bigger issue than the mistake itself. Many Third Party Administrators (TPAs) make errors when managing 401(k) plans for sponsors, yet they often refuse to take responsibility. Instead, they place the burden on the plan sponsor to rectify the situation and seek absolution from their accountability. \
Recently, I encountered a case where a TPA made an error in plan design and expected the 401(k) plan sponsor to take responsibility for the correction. In such instances, it’s clearly time for the TPA to be replaced.
