So, as I and dozens of other observers have pointed out (although I am confident I am the only one who quoted Shakespeare on the subject), the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Tibble drove home the importance of monitoring plan investments, as well as the fact that, dependent on the circumstances, the failure to do so, and where necessary to take corresponding action based on the monitoring, can constitute a fiduciary breach. Okay, okay, say all the ERISA lawyers: time to tell our clients to set up a monitoring schedule and to meet regularly to do so.

Well, as forensic economist, expert witness and blogger extraordinaire Susan Mangiero points out, not so fast. From a financial perspective, monitoring plan investments can be a complex enterprise, highly dependent on details of the investments themselves and their relationship to market stimuli. In this article for BNA, Susan explains in detail exactly what this means, illustrating the level of complexity that the type of monitoring that Tibble requires actually involves, and pointing out that plan fiduciaries are now going to have to carefully consider when to bring in – and pay for – still more outside expertise for these exact purposes.