One of the most important decisions a company with an employee ownership plan can make is who should be the fiduciary. Not only are fiduciaries responsible for making decisions about the plan, but they are the ones to be sued when things go wrong. Fiduciaries are often confused with trustees. These often are the same person, but the law defines fiduciaries as those who make decisions for the operation of the plan. A fiduciary may exist for all plan decisions or for individual decisions.
Many different people can serve as plan fiduciaries.
There are good arguments for each. It is also important to understand that not all decisions about the plan are fiduciary decisions. Filing reports is not a fiduciary issue, but making sure the plan is operated according to the plan document is. Fiduciaries must assure the plan pays no more than fair market value, does not operate in a discriminatory way, and has qualified advisors. The buying and selling of plan assets, corporate governance with respect to the plan's shares, and the reasonableness of any loan to an ESOP are among fiduciary issues as well.