ABOUT

W.Scott Simon, J.D., CFP®, AIFA®

W. Scott Simon is the author of two books including The Prudent Investor Act: A Guide to Understanding. He was a principal at an SEC-regulated registered investment advisory firm for 15 years serving as an ERISA section 3(38) fiduciary investment manager and one-on-one investment advisor to hundreds of participants in retirement plans. Since 2003, he has written a popular and well-received monthly column for Morningstar on a large number of fiduciary investment issues that cover the Uniform Prudent Investor Act (which concerns the investment conduct of fiduciaries of private family trusts), the Restatement (Third) of Trusts (which includes the Prudent Investor Rule), the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act which concerns the investment conduct of fiduciary directors and trustees serving as stewards of the portfolios held by charitable organizations such as foundations and endowments), the Uniform Management of Public Employee Retirement Systems Act (which concerns the investment conduct of fiduciaries responsible for municipal, county and state public employee pension plans) as well as ERISA (which is the federal law governing qualified retirement plans such as 401(k) plans).

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

  • Uniform Prudent Investor Act
  • Restatement (Third) of Trusts
  • Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974
  • Investment Advisers Act of 1940
  • Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act
  • Uniform Management of Public Employee Retirement Systems Act

fiduciary and related experience

  • Expertise and broad experience in ERISA matters including fiduciary duties, conduct of plan fiduciaries, and costs and diversification of plan investment options
  • Consultant with sponsors of retirement plans on a wide variety of issues
  • Former principal at an SEC registered investment advisory firm
  • Served plan sponsor clients as an ERISA section 3(38) discretionary fiduciary investment manager
  • Educated and advised hundreds of plan participants one-on-one
  • Served as sole trustee of two private family trusts
  • Practiced law in Los Angeles for nearly a decade prior to entering the investment advisory profession

Credentials

  • Recipient of the 2012 Tamar Frankel Fiduciary of the Year Award for “contributions to advancing the vital role of the fiduciary standard to investors, capital markets and to society”
  • Recipient, Rotary Foundation Post-Graduate Law Fellowship
  • Certified Financial Planner®
  • ACCREDITED INVESTMENT FIDUCIARY ANALYST™
  • Enrolled in Level II of the Chartered Financial Analyst® program
  • Member, State Bar of California
  • Admitted to practice, U.S. District Court, Central District of California
  • Admitted to practice, U.S. Tax Court

EDUCATION

  • Graduate of UCLA with departmental honors
  • Graduate of Southwestern University School of Law