In the aftermath of the collapse of Enron Corp.'s retirement plans, the Department of Labor commissioned a study in 2002 of what went wrong. Enron's pension plans were supervised by managers selected by its board of directors to serve as fiduciaries.

The study, which covered eighteen months and called dozens of witnesses from all over the fiduciary community, found that critical functions were performed by plan officials at Enron who had never received any training in the skills required by pension and trust laws.

The Department of Labor reported in 2009 that persons who serve on investment committees, and in other plan management roles, have not progressed in their skills much since the Enron catastrophe.

The Investment Fiduciary Leadership Council, Inc., ("IFLC") a non-profit education and advocacy group, found during surveys that most training programs for plan sponsors are complex, biased in favor of service providers, and lack useful action steps. In order to meet the need for thorough, simple, and low cost training, IFLC developed Get SMART, a self-paced online course that matches the needs identified by the Department of Labor.

Mike Wojtaszek, who is a member of the investment committee for a 401(k) plan said, "I am very impressed with the Get SMART training course. I was able to take it on time of my choosing. It's simple, straight forward, and gave me specific things that I need to be sure to do so that I comply with a legal duty that I really didn't understand very well. I recommend it for every person that performs fiduciary functions."

Find out about Get SMART here.