Key takeaways:

• The recently decided case, Tussey v. ABB, Inc., provides a cautionary lesson on the ERISA obligations facing plan fiduciaries when it comes to plan administration fees, including the importance of properly identifying the ERISA duties owed to a plan, establishing and recording a proper process to comply with those duties, and following that process.
• Plan fiduciaries who fail to comply with their ERISA fiduciary obligations with respect to plan administration fees could face millions of dollars in damage liabilities.
• Because plan fiduciaries will soon be receiving a wave of fee and expense data as a result of new disclosure regulations, now is the time to ensure that the process to address the data will withstand the scrutiny of plaintiffs’ lawyers who would use that data against a plan’s fiduciaries.