ERISA Basics
The core terms — what ERISA is, who fiduciaries are, and what the law requires of them.
Last updated 2026-06-02. These answers are general information, not legal advice. Your situation depends on specific facts — for guidance about your circumstances, request a free review or consult a licensed attorney.
ERISA — the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 — is the federal law that sets minimum standards for most private-sector retirement and benefit plans and requires the people who run them to act in participants' best interests. It covers plans like 401(k)s, 403(b)s, pensions, and ESOPs. It generally does not cover IRAs you set up yourself, or most government and church plans.
A fiduciary is anyone with discretion or control over a retirement plan or its assets — usually the employer, a plan committee, and sometimes an outside trustee or advisor. ERISA holds fiduciaries to strict duties of prudence and loyalty toward participants.
A fiduciary breach is when someone responsible for a plan fails to meet ERISA's duties — for example, by allowing excessive fees, selecting or keeping imprudent investments, or putting the employer's or a provider's interests ahead of participants'. Whether a breach actually occurred is a legal determination; our pages describe allegations, not findings.
The duty of prudence requires fiduciaries to act with the care and skill of a knowledgeable expert — and, crucially, to follow a sound, documented process for choosing and monitoring the plan's investments and fees. Courts often focus on whether the process was prudent, not just on investment results.
The duty of loyalty requires fiduciaries to act solely in the interest of participants — not for the benefit of the employer or a service provider. Favoring a provider's own products over better, cheaper options can violate this duty.
ERISA bars certain dealings between a plan and "parties in interest," such as paying unreasonable compensation to a service provider. In 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court (Cunningham v. Cornell) made it easier for participants to bring some prohibited-transaction claims.
Fiduciaries must keep watching the investments, fees, and providers they select — not just choose them once. Failing to review and replace overpriced or underperforming options over time can be a "failure to monitor."
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These answers are general information, not legal advice. Your situation depends on specific facts — for guidance about your circumstances, request a free review or consult a licensed attorney.
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