You could be the greatest plan provider, but you can’t please everyone. Even when things aren’t your fault, there will be some plan sponsors who will still blame you.

You can try to bend over backward for some plan sponsors in even fixing their own mistakes, but they might have ideas on their own on how things should be fixed. As an ERISA attorney, I have seen plan sponsors and participants in shapes and all sizes. The moment you are threatened by a plan sponsor or blackmailed, the best thing to do is contact counsel. I always think that you should leave things to those who can best handle things. As an ERISA attorney, I’ve very good at confrontations and offering a hammer in correspondence when there needs to be.

Corresponding to plan sponsors that are making threatening demands can get you so confused, you might state something you might regret and be held against you. When getting a threat, just stop the correspondence and refer the matter to counsel.