Vol. 1, No. 17Wednesday, November 4, 2026Not a real newspaper

The 401(k) Liar

America's Least Trusted Source for Retirement Plan News

The Service Edition

Breaking · Client Service

Advisor Retracts “Extension of Your HR Team” After Being Added to HR Team

Sponsor welcomes additional capacity advisor had intended figuratively.

By Staff Fabricator · Advisor Desk

Advisor Brent Kessling, in a suit, works the phone behind the Kowalski Plumbing & Heating HR desk while four plumbers wait in line with clipboards; his sales slide, An Extension of Your HR Team, is still on the TV above him.
Kessling, strategic. The slide was still up from the morning.AI-generated satirical photo illustration

TOLEDO, OHIO — Scottsdale advisor Brent Kessling requested an immediate revision to his firm’s service description Wednesday after Kowalski Plumbing & Heating accepted his offer to function as an extension of its HR team.

Within an hour of his finals presentation, Kessling had been added to the staff directory, invited to Monday’s department meeting, and copied on an email titled “Coverage While I’m Out.”

Office manager Denise Miller said his arrival brought the department to two.

“He said he wanted to take things off my plate,” Miller said. “I’ve been keeping a list.”

Kessling explained that his role was primarily strategic.

“That’s perfect,” Miller said. “Nobody here has time for that either.”

At his first staff meeting, Kessling presented a slide outlining the firm’s commitment to helping HR focus on what matters most. Miller asked whether he could handle the new-hire benefits questions while she did that.

Kessling said he would be happy to arrange a webinar.

“Great,” Miller said. “You can do that after the calls.”

By Wednesday afternoon, Kessling had clarified that “extension of your team” referred to the quality of the relationship rather than his availability to perform work assigned by the team.

Owner Dan Kowalski said he understood and thanked Kessling for being direct.

He asked whether Kessling could stay until they found his replacement.

Litigation · Class Notice

Participant Opts Out of 401(k) Settlement, Thought He Was Unsubscribing

By Staff Fabricator · Compliance Desk

DAYTON, OHIO — Dale Pruitt, 44, a warehouse supervisor, became the only member of a 1,212-person class to opt out of his employer’s 401(k) fee settlement Wednesday, after mailing back a form he believed would stop the letters.

The notice, sent under a court order requiring that every participant be given a chance to exclude himself, explained Pruitt’s rights over six pages. He read the box.

“It said if I didn’t want to be part of it, write that down and send it back,” Pruitt said. “I didn’t want to be part of anything. I wrote that down.”

His letter, reproduced in the court file, reads in full: “Please take me off this.”

Because Pruitt is no longer bound by the release, his claim must now be valued separately. Defense counsel has retained an expert to estimate the fees Pruitt paid since 2011. Plaintiffs’ counsel has written to offer him individual representation. The plan’s fiduciary liability carrier has set aside a reserve.

“We respect Mr. Pruitt’s decision,” the carrier’s claims manager said. “We would like to understand it.”

Pruitt said he had not opened the three follow-up letters, citing the envelopes, which felt about the same thickness as the first one. Asked whether he had been harmed by the plan’s fees, he said his account was probably fine.

Around the Industry

Litigation

Law Firm Discovers Form 5500 Has Numbers In It

By Staff Fabricator

NEW YORK — A plaintiffs' firm filed its fourteenth 401(k) fee complaint of the quarter Wednesday after an associate noticed that the annual report every plan files with the government lists what the plan paid its recordkeeper and how many people are in it.

“You divide one by the other,” the partner said. “It's right there.”

The firm compared the result to an average of plans it described as similar and found the difference to be unreasonable. Asked how the comparison plans were chosen, the partner said they were the ones with lower numbers.

Portability

Auto-Portability Successfully Moves $614 Balance to Place It Will Remain

By Staff Fabricator

HARTFORD, CONN. — Meridian Trust Services announced Wednesday that its automatic portability program had moved a departing participant's $614 balance out of his former employer's plan and into a safe harbor IRA, where it will stay.

The program is designed to carry small balances to a participant's next employer's plan. The participant's next employer does not use Meridian, and the two systems have not been introduced.

“Cash-outs are down to almost nothing,” a Meridian product lead said. “So is movement.”

Recordkeeping

Report Finds 99% of Participants On Track; Committee Reads Footnotes for First Time

By Staff Fabricator

HARTFORD, CONN. — A plan committee extended its quarterly meeting Wednesday after a member turned to the last page of Meridian Trust Services’ Retirement Readiness Report and began reading aloud.

Footnote 2 assumes a 7 percent return, continued employment, and household savings that were not collected. Footnote 3 assumes retirement at 72, to be conservative. Footnote 5 excludes participants who opted out of the plan from the denominator, which improved the result by 11 points.

The chair thanked Meridian for its transparency and asked whether a version without footnotes was available for the board.

Succession

Founder, 71, Names Successor: Himself, Later

By Staff Fabricator

DENVER — The founder of a $900 million advisory firm completed his written succession plan Wednesday, three years after his consultant first asked for it, naming himself to lead the firm through a transition period of undetermined length.

“Clients want continuity,” he said. “I'm the continuity.”

The plan identifies a junior partner as the eventual successor and describes her development path as “ongoing.” She has been at the firm for nine years and was told of the plan on Wednesday.