Although they may keep your company's purse strings knotted pretty tight, CFOs uniformly care, and deeply, about helping employees plan for retirement, particularly in light of proposed federal regulations within the past year.

In late 2010, the Department of Labor issued several regulations regarding disclosures of retirement-plan fees and investment-related information that will be effective, or are expected to be, by the beginning of next year. These rules bring new responsibilities to CFOs, either as plan fiduciaries or as representatives of plan sponsors, under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). With that being said, finance executives generally take their responsibilities as fiduciaries seriously — which isn't surprising since they are already fiduciaries with respect to their duties to their shareholders — whether the company is public or private.

In my experience, I've found that financial executives care about helping their employees plan for retirement, yet I found it hard to formulate as to why. After querying several colleagues to gauge their thoughts on the matter, it became clear that there are four fundamental reasons why CFOs do indeed care about their employees' retirement. These include:

1. Employee Retention – Employee retention is critical to a business. Retirement planning is a benefit that employees deserve and can help ensure that the employee stays at the company longer, happier.

2. Employees are Shareholders – In many instances, the employees are also company shareholders. Therefore, retirement planning is an integral part of the business model.
3. They Wear the Fiduciary Hat – As a fiduciary, CFOs have a fiduciary responsibility to be concerned about the retirement planning of the participants, regardless of whether or not the company is public or private.

4. It's the Law – As mentioned, with the new standard set into motion regarding the word "fiduciary," CFOs are placed in a role where they're now more liable for their employees' retirement investments.

Despite what may sometimes come across clearly, financial executives really care about their employees retirement or at the very least, they should.