Opinion ID: 554068
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Heading: the definition of a fiduciary under erisa

Text: 11 ERISA Sec. 409 creates a federal cause of action against [a]ny person who is a fiduciary with respect to a plan who breaches any of the responsibilities, obligations, or duties imposed upon fiduciaries by ERISA. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1109(a); see id., Sec. 1132(a)(2) (plan participants, beneficiaries, or fiduciaries may bring civil actions for breach of the obligations imposed under Sec. 1109). ERISA's drafters defined the term fiduciary as follows: 12 [A] person is a fiduciary with respect to a plan to the extent (i) he exercises any discretionary authority or discretionary control respecting management of such plan or exercises any authority or control respecting management or disposition of its assets ... or (iii) he has any discretionary authority or discretionary responsibility in the administration of such plan. 13 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1002(21)(A). Pappas's first argument is that actuaries become fiduciaries when they give advice to plan trustees and invite reliance on that advice. They allege that Hartt knew that his erroneous actuarial work would not be questioned by the Plan's trustees, placing Hartt in a position to exercise discretionary authority over the management of the IIG Plan. 14 Like the district court, we are not convinced by this argument or the expansive reading of the ERISA definition of fiduciary upon which it is premised. Other courts that have considered the question have refused to fit professionals like accountants or attorneys within the statutory definition when all they have done is advise the trustees of an ERISA plan. See, e.g., Anoka Orthopaedic Assocs. v. Lechner, 910 F.2d 514, 517 (8th Cir.1990) (neither lawyer who designed plan nor consultant who administered plan were fiduciaries); Painters of Philadelphia, 879 F.2d at 1149-51 (accounting firm that performed statutorily required plan audits not fiduciary); Nieto v. Ecker, 845 F.2d 868, 870-71 (9th Cir.1988) (attorney who gave professional advice to a plan not fiduciary); Yeseta v. Baima, 837 F.2d 380, 385 (9th Cir.1988) (neither attorney who reviewed Plan's compliance with law nor accountant who prepared tax returns and financial statements were fiduciaries). These courts supported this position by reading the terms discretionary authority, discretionary control, and discretionary responsibility in Sec. 1001(21)(A) as speaking to actual decision-making power rather than to the influence that a professional may have over the decisions made by the plan trustees she advises. See Painters of Philadelphia, 879 F.2d at 1150 (Since an auditor is without direct or indirect decision-making authority with respect to the affairs of the plan, it cannot be said that it exercises discretionary authority or responsibility in the administration of a plan.). 15 We see no reason why the reasoning of these cases should not extend to the actuarial profession. In drafting ERISA, Congress assigned a role to actuaries in the preparation of annual reports required to be filed with the Internal Revenue Service concerning plans organized under ERISA. See 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1023(d) (requiring complete actuarial statement as part of annual report). A similar role was imposed on accountants, see 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1023(a)(3)(A) (requiring ERISA plan administrators to engage accountants to examine information to be included in plan annual reports), a group whom other courts have found not to be fiduciaries. Given the similarity in the roles assigned these two professions by ERISA, we are unwilling to conclude that Congress intended that actuaries would become fiduciaries but accountants would not. 16 As he did in the district court, Pappas points us to certain language in a committee comment accompanying an early draft of ERISA to support the view that Congress intended the definition of fiduciary to cover professionals--particularly actuaries--who provide their services to plan trustees. He relies on the following passage contained in material in the nature of a committee report inserted into the Congressional Record by Representative Perkins, Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor: 17 The Committee has adopted the view that the definition of fiduciary is of necessity broad.... A fiduciary need not be a person with direct access to the assets of a plan.... Conduct alone may in an appropriate circumstance impose fiduciary obligations. It is the clear intention of the Committee that any person with a specific duty imposed on him by this statute be deemed to be a fiduciary.... 18