If you ever want to know how strong your fiduciary process really is, don’t look at the investment lineup—look at your meeting minutes.
I’ve reviewed enough plan files to know that some committees treat minutes like an afterthought. You’d see one sentence: “Reviewed funds. No changes.” That’s not a record; that’s a liability.
In ERISA world, silence isn’t golden—it’s incriminating. If it’s not written down, it didn’t happen. The plaintiffs’ attorneys love that. They’ll wave your minimalist minutes in court and ask, “So what exactly did you review?”
Good minutes don’t need to be novels. They just need to show a prudent process: which reports were discussed, what questions were asked, what decisions were made, and why. It’s not paperwork—it’s protection.
So the next time your committee wraps up a meeting early, take five more minutes to document what you did. Because when the lights go out and the subpoenas come on, silence in the minutes can be deafening.
