The Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration announced Wednesday that it will provide a Web-based tool for plan sponsors who wish to obtain fiduciary relief for a service provider's failure to comply with the department's plan-level fee disclosure rule, better known as 408(b)(2).

The final 408(b)(2) regulation, which took effect on July 1, includes a provision to protect plan sponsors or other responsible plan fiduciaries from liability for a breach of their fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act when, unbeknownst to the plan sponsor, a service provider failed to comply with the regulation's comprehensive disclosure requirements.

As the EBSA explains, if a plan sponsor discovers that required information has not been furnished, "the sponsor must notify the department, by regular mail or electronically, when efforts to obtain the undisclosed information from a service provider are not successful."