LIMRA, SPARK Institute Join Forces to Fight Fraud in Retirement Plans

LIMRA and the SPARK [Society of Professional Asset Managers and Recordkeepers] Institute on Wednesday announced a collaboration to combat fraud in the retirement services industry.

As fraudulent activity continues to evolve in sophistication and prevalence, the organizations are seeking to establish industrywide initiatives to enhance fraud prevention and protect companies and consumers.

“The evolving landscape of financial fraud demands a proactive and collaborative response from the industry,” stated Tim Rouse, the executive director of the SPARK Institute, in a statement. “Our partnership with LIMRA will strengthen the industry’s collective defenses, protect the interests of our members and ensure the long-term security of retirement assets for the millions of American workers that depend on us.”

The collaboration is set to conduct a fraud prevention benchmarking study in the first half of this year, intended to identify valuable insights into the current state of fraudulent activities. The study will also research best practices, gaps in existing fraud prevention and other strategies and areas for improvement.

Additionally, LIMRA and SPARK will collaborate on developing and distributing educational resources for both plan sponsors and participants to enhance awareness and understanding of emerging fraud threats.

LIMRA will also leverage its platform FraudShare for members to “exchange fraud incident and threat intelligence.” According to LIMRA, companies using FraudShare to monitor their transactions and prevent third-party account takeover fraud are detecting up to 44% of fraudulent incidents.

Lastly, LIMRA and SPARK plan to establish a financial services fraud and data security summit. The annual event will “bring together industry experts, thought leaders and other key stakeholders to share insights, discuss emerging trends and collaborate on innovative solutions to most effectively combat fraud.”

With cybersecurity breaches becoming more frequent, assistant Secretary of Labor Lisa Gomez, the head of the Employee Benefits Security Administration, has advised plan sponsors to review the DOL’s cybersecurity best practices while waiting for new guidance.