When Your Fired 401(k) TPA Takes Things Personally -

Aside from Airplane!, my favorite movie of all time is The Godfather and the underpinning is the complete and utter transformation of Michael Corleone from “college boy” war hero to mob boss. A very important scene in that transformation is when Michael suggests to Sonny and Tom Hagen that he kills Virgil Sollozzo and Captain McCluskey, the people behind the attempted assassination of their father, Don Vito Corleone. Sonny, the normal hothead starts laughing it off and suggests that Michael is taking things too personally. Michael convinces everyone in Don Vito’s office that “it’s not personal, it’s strictly business.” When you have to fire the third-party administrator (TPA) for your 401(k) plan, it should be business, not personal, and most of the time it is. However, the TPA may not take that way and I’ve spent 23 years helping plan sponsors with their soon-to-be former TPAs, who take things personally.