I worked for a third party administrator (TPA) for almost 5 years and one of my favorite things about the boss there was that he just wanted to cut to the chase. We had an actuary who developed a speech im- pediment when he was nervous, and when asked a question by the boss, he would either stammer or go through an actuarial tangent that no one would understand. The boss would ask the actuary what the bot- tom line was. Plan sponsors need to know the bottom line and this is what this article is all about when it comes to their responsibility.