Health & Welfare Compliance Knowledge Base

Straightforward answers to the questions employers and plan fiduciaries ask most — written by the team behind Fiduciary In A Box.

Health Plan Fiduciary Basics Who counts as a fiduciary for a health and welfare plan, what ERISA expects of them, and how much personal risk is really involved. 5 questions Fiduciary Committees for Health & Welfare Plans Why employers form benefits fiduciary committees, and how membership, acknowledgements, disclosures, and training keep the committee defensible. 4 questions Fiduciary Committee Charters Seven essential questions for creating, evaluating, or updating a fiduciary committee charter — turning broad governance expectations into practical operating rules that stay aligned with your plan documents. 7 questions Health & Welfare Plan Documents The written foundation of every ERISA health plan — plan documents, SPDs, wrap documents, amendments, and the cafeteria plan that makes pre-tax premiums possible. 5 questions Health Plan Compliance Filings The recurring filings and notices every group health plan sponsor has to get right — Form 5500, SARs, ACA reporting, HIPAA obligations, and nondiscrimination testing. 5 questions Healthcare Transparency & the CAA The Consolidated Appropriations Act and transparency rules reshaped health plan fiduciary duty — broker compensation, gag clauses, RxDC, machine-readable files, and parity analyses. 5 questions Health Plan Vendors, Risk & Insurance Selecting and monitoring the vendors who run your plan, holding them to DOL cybersecurity expectations, and insuring the plan and its fiduciaries properly. 5 questions DOL Audits, Records & Documentation How employers prepare for a DOL health plan investigation, what records ERISA requires them to keep and for how long, and what makes fiduciary files legally defensible. 6 questions Choosing Fiduciary Compliance Technology What to look for in software for health plan fiduciary compliance — document management, committee governance, security, and audit readiness — and how to evaluate it like a fiduciary. 5 questions