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

That said, you can easily understand why many 401(k) plan sponsors worry about the monsters hidden within the perceived darkness of their plan (see "The 5 Biggest Worries of 401k Plan Sponsors and What To Do About Them," FiduciaryNews.com, November 12, 2019).

If you're the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, you're used to delegating. You don't progress up those ranks if you aren't a good judge of character and if you don't trust those characters. Hands-on CEOs usually flunk out. Hands-off CEOs can fail, too, but only 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 more nimble than larger companies. But those efficiencies come at a price. That price is usually centralized command and control. In other words, small company CEOs can't delegate as much.

When you can't delegate, you learn to learn. When a new project comes up, and its specifications sound a bit foreign, you learn everything you can about those specs. Once you've accomplished that, then you can hire the subcontractors.

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

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

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

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

Without significant delegation.

This is where it's hard for many small business owners. Used to making and executing all decisions, the idea of trusting your fiduciary life to a third party can lead to many sleepless nights.

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

Instant Insights /

What? Plan sponsors worry? – Carosa

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