Fiduciary Decision-Making

A fund's fiduciaries may face conflicts of interest when they wear not only a fiduciary hat, but also a corporate, union or proprietary hat. For example:

• A fund's sponsor proposes a sale or sale-leaseback of real estate with the fund;

• The fund owns employer securities and must decide whether or not to sell in a tender offer, or how to vote the proxies;

• A bank trustee needs an individual prohibited transaction exemption from the U.S. Department of Labor in order to restructure the investment fund it manages for ERISA funds;

• The union that jointly sponsors a fund wants to enter into a financial transaction with the fund; or

• An insurance company wants to transfer "plan assets" in its managed separate account to its wholly-owned trust company.

In these situations, IFS acts as an independent fiduciary - analyzing the proposed investment transaction from the fund's perspective, deciding whether it is in the best interest of the participants, and accepting ERISA fiduciary responsibility for the decision.