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Remember when you were a kid and you stayed awakebecause of a strange noise you heard? Your idle mind imagined the worst (a monster under the bed, orperhaps one in the closet). Such worry is normal. It'spart of our survival instinct.

That said, you can easily understand why many 401(k) plansponsors worry about the monsters hidden within the perceiveddarkness of their plan (see "The 5 Biggest Worries of 401k PlanSponsors and What To Do About Them," FiduciaryNews.com, November12, 2019).

If you're the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, you're used todelegating. You don't progress up those ranks if you aren't a goodjudge of character and if you don't trust those characters.Hands-on CEOs usually flunk out. Hands-off CEOs can fail, too, butonly if they're not paying attention.

Things get a little different if you're running a small company.You can afford small scale efficiencies that can keep the firm morenimble than larger companies. But those efficiencies come at aprice. That price is usually centralized command and control. Inother words, small company CEOs can't delegate as much.

When you can't delegate, you learn to learn. When a new projectcomes up, and its specifications sound a bit foreign, you learneverything you can about those specs. Once you've accomplishedthat, then you can hire the subcontractors.

But what happens if the new project is outside your field ofexpertise? What if it has nothing to do with your business model?What if it's a project you have no salient interest in, that wasfoisted upon you?

That's the typically situation of the small business owner. Suchowners are thinking 24/7 about their business. Marginal costs andmarginal revenues, fixed costs and fixed revenues, research anddevelopment, marketing and operations, cash flow, net profit,working capital, debt leverage and financing… you get thepicture.

Human resources, while critical to the success of any company,represents the least interesting facet of business to mostentrepreneurs. Yet they understand that, without human resources, anew company will never achieve the growth necessary to breakout ofthe startup phase.

To attract the most productive of those human resources requiresbenefits. Many benefits can be easily provided directly bythird-party vendors. Not so with the company retirement plan. Theplan sponsor's role rests solidly within the fiduciary framework ofall plans. It simply cannot be removed.

Without significant delegation.

This is where it's hard for many small business owners. Used tomaking and executing all decisions, the idea of trusting yourfiduciary life to a third party can lead to many sleeplessnights.

Rest easy, though. If it involves a 401(k) plan, there's alreadya tried and true off-the-shelf solution waiting for the inquisitiveplan sponsor.

And if you want to find one, it's best not to cut corners.

The worst thing a plan sponsor can get is to get what they paidfor.