In these situations, we sit down with the plan sponsor and/or provider to develop goals and ascertain the likelihood of achieving them. By doing this, we avoid establishing grandiose goals that have little chance of success.

We can also help the plan sponsor and/or provider with specialized projects, such as evaluating the desirability of offering advice. Advice, for example, sounds great, but if the participants' expectations for the advisory service differ from those of the plan sponsors, not to mention those of the advisor, a breeding ground for lawsuits can be cultivated. The role of education should be to prevent participants from developing unrealistic expectations rather than to inform the plan fiduciaries of their mistakes in judgement.

Whatever we undertake, maximizing the project's effectiveness while minimizing costs is always foremost in our minds. But perhaps our greatest service to clients is helping them get a firm grasp of educational reality. Alfred Stieglitz's comment on photography's greatest problem is equally applicable to the investment education dilemmas plan sponsors and providers face:

"In my opinion, the most difficult problem in photography is to learn to see."