Defined Contribution
FIDUCIARY COMPLIANCE
CHECKLISTS
By Gabriel Potter, AIF®
Checklists Are A Life Saver… Literally
Simple checklists to demonstrate adherence to proper
procedure is a well-known advantage to a variety of
professional endeavors including everything from spaceflight,
air travel, medicine, nuclear energy, military operations, and
so on. For example, momentarily disregard this magazine’s
usual scope of investing and fiduciary matters; let us consider
20 | WINTER 2014
the medical field, specifically surgery. Several studies have
been conducted which have demonstrated that a simple
checklist is invaluable tool for reducing risk. A 2009
Harvard study suggested that a surgical checklist reduced
complication and death rates by a third, with subsequent
studies corroborating these results many times over.