This web page allows plan fiduciaries to electronically notify the Department of Labor of a service provider's failure to disclose fee information required by the Department's 408(b)(2) regulation. To go directly to the Fee Disclosure Failure Notice, click on the link on the bottom of this page.
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), requires fiduciaries (those responsible for managing the plan) to ensure that the services provided to their plan are necessary and that contracts or arrangements for services, and the cost of those services, is reasonable.
In order for a service contract or arrangement with a retirement plan to be reasonable, covered service providers must disclose certain information about the services they will provide to the plan and the compensation they will receive, including indirect compensation from sources other than the plan. This information is needed in order for the responsible plan fiduciary (the fiduciary with the authority to cause the plan to enter into, extend or renew the service provider contract or arrangement) to understand the services, assess the reasonableness of the compensation (direct and indirect) received by the service providers, and identify any conflicts of interest that may impact the service provider's performance.
If a service provider fails to provide the required information, the contract or arrangement between the plan and the service provider is prohibited by ERISA, and the responsible plan fiduciary will have engaged in a prohibited transaction.
However, an exception (known as a class exemption) allows responsible plan fiduciaries who did not know that the service provider had failed to disclose some of the required information to avoid engaging in a prohibited transaction. To get this relief, certain conditions must be met.
Among other things, the responsible plan fiduciary must request the missing information from the service provider in writing and, if that fails, notify EBSA within 30 days of certain events. Responsible plan fiduciaries can use this web page to provide the notice to EBSA electronically. Once completed, filers will receive immediate confirmation that their Fee Disclosure Failure Notice has been received. Alternatively, responsible plan fiduciaries can mail the notice to the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration, Office of Enforcement, P.O. Box 75296, Washington, DC 20013. See Model Fee Disclosure Failure Notice below.
A responsible plan fiduciary must meet all of the conditions for the relief under the exemption. For more information, see a summary of the conditions. Note: the Department of Labor will not generally issue individual determinations as to whether a plan has met the conditions of the class exemption.