The federal Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration is ratcheting up scrutiny of advisor pension plan fees.

Beginning its third year, EBSA’s Fiduciary Service Provider Compensation Project is aimed at ensuring comprehensive disclosure about direct and indirect service provider compensation and conflicts of interest.

The investigations are on track to expand in the coming year as the agency increases its overall Major Case Initiative with an emphasis on service providers -- including investment managers, advisors, consultants and brokers -- to 401(k) and other pension plans.

The goal of focusing on service providers is to have a greater impact since they provide functions for many large and small plans, a Labor Department official said.

“Traditionally, there have been more plan sponsor fiduciaries being investigated. Now, we’re seeing more fiduciary services providers such as registered financial advisors being audited,” said David Kaleda, a Washington attorney and member of the ERISA Advisory Council.

EBSA is cooperating in the compensation project with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Through the project, EBSA recovered $187,000 of excessive fees for plans from service providers and plan fiduciaries and gained $3.2 million from the reversal of prohibited transactions in the federal fiscal year that ended September 30. In the previous year, the recoveries totaled $4.64 million, with the lion’s share from a settlement by ING Life Insurance and Annuity Company for its failure to disclose its policy on reconciling transaction processing errors to 1,400 plans.

The agency did not have a comparable number for 2013 on savings from corrections of prohibited transactions.

While the numbers are small, the Labor Department official said the biggest benefit of the compensation project has been to assist advisors and other plan service providers and sponsors with compliance.

“We are trying to get the fiduciaries to have all the pertinent information on direct and indirect compensation so when they hire service providers they can make informed decisions on whether it is a good arrangement for their plans,” the Labor Department executive said.

The Financial Service Provider Compensation Project is a continuation of greater Labor Department oversight of financial advisors that included the Consultant Advisor Project (initiated before EBSA had rules on indirect fees) and began with the start of a series of class action law suits in 2006 by St. Louis attorney Jerry Schlichter against pension fund advisors for excessive fees and conflicts of interest.

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