A third party plan trustee gives erroneous information to a plan participant about the timing of a transaction. The error resulted in a loss of thousands of dollars because the stock market took a nose dive. The trust agreement only addresses the trustee to act with care, skill, prudence and diligence of a prudent person in a like capacity. The SPD states the correct timing of the transaction -- contrary to the information the trustee gave. What authority to address this issue? Who is liable to the Participant, if anybody.

Normally the Plan Administrator is responsible for gathering employee investment change elections and transmitting them to the Trustee. Under this arrangement the Plan Administrator would be held accountable if he/she gave out incorrect information.

However, if I understand your question correctly, the participant contacted the trustee directly and was given incorrect cut-off times to submit investment changes. If this is a correct understanding then I would strongly urge the participant (through the Plan Administrator or Sponsor) to have the Trustee make his account whole. I know the wording you refer to in the Trust Agreement but there is also wording about neglience.