Last July, I asked the question will Form 5500s reveal outdated fidelity bonds or retirement plans without bonds at all. That was prior to the July 31st due date (unless extended) for calendar year retirement plans required to file Form 5500 for the 2007 plan year. And, I noted, as in the past, there will be a number of plan sponsors who have to indicate on the 5500 thay they have outdated fidelity bonds or none at all.
Since the fidelity bond requirement is high up on the Department of Labor’s compliance priorities, it’s not a great leap to assume that the Department of Labor monitors this item on Form 5500.But 2007 was then, and this is now. It’s not too late to meet the bonding requirements for 2008 which are:
- All persons, including fiduciaries, who handle funds or other property of an employee benefit plan (“called plan officials”) have to be bonded unless they are covered by an exemption.
- Each plan official is required to be bonded for at least 10% of the amount he or she handles, but in no event less than $1,000.
- The maximum bond amount required under section 412 with regard to any one plan is $500,000 per plan official, or $1 million per plan official in the case of a plan that holds employer securities.
The Department of Labor recently issued Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2008-04 to address the fidelity bonding questions that its investigators frequently confront during their examinations of ERISA plans. The issues are presented in a question-and-answer format consisting of 42 frequently asked questions (FAQs) covering:
- ERISA Fidelity Bonds
- Exemptions From The Bonding Requirements
- Funds Or Other Property
- Handling Funds Or Other Property
- Form And Scope Of Bond
- Bond Terms And Provisions
- Amount Of Bond
An ERISA fidelity bond is not the same thing as fiduciary liability insurance which is not required by law. That’s a topic for my next post in which I’ll discuss in an FAQ format.
