Another common violation of ERISA by plan fiduciaries is the failure to properly monitor investment performance. Since plan participants rely upon fiduciaries for their investment choices, their performance should be monitored on a regular basis and findings should be well documented. Following is a list of investment performance criteria that should be monitored:
- One, three, and five-year performance vs a benchmark
- Risk as measured by volatility as measured by standard deviation
- Risk-adjusted returns such as the Sharpe Ratio
- Manager tenure
- Returns in excess of market returns as measured by Alpha
- Turnover ratio
- Operating expense