524
Thomas, J., dissenting
accord Congress' repeated references to a "fiduciary with respect to a plan" the same significance we attributed to it in Russell, namely, that it reveals that ERISA's fiduciary obligations were designed to regulate the relationship between the fiduciary and the plan, and not the relationship between the fiduciary and individual participants.
Furthermore, "the emphasis on the relationship between the fiduciary and the plan as an entity" that we found to be "apparent" on the face of § 409, Russell, 473 U. S., at 140, pervades all of the fiduciary provisions in ERISA. This is to be expected, since the relief available under § 409 ultimately reflects the fiduciary duties and obligations that § 409 enforces. We recognized in Russell that, consistent with the wording of § 409, "the principal statutory duties imposed on the trustees relate to the proper management, administration, and investment of fund assets, the maintenance of proper records, the disclosure of specified information, and the avoidance of conflicts of interest." Id., at 142-143. Though it is true that ERISA requires fiduciaries to discharge their "duties with respect to a plan solely in the interest of the participants and beneficiaries and . . . for the exclusive purpose of providing benefits to participants and their beneficiaries," § 404(a)(1)(A)(i), it is equally true that the duties to which these commands apply deal primarily with obligations that relate to the plan, not individual plan participants. In fact, one of the two statutes we specifically cited in Russell as evidence that Congress was primarily concerned with the misuse of plan assets was § 404, the provision that respondents seek to enforce in this case. See 473 U. S., at 142-143, and n. 10.3 That Congress was principally con-3 We also observed in Russell that the Act's legislative history, like its statutory provisions, "emphasize[s] the fiduciary's personal liability for losses to the plan." 473 U. S., at 140, n. 8 (emphasis in original). We gleaned from the legislative history that "the crucible of congressional concern was misuse and mismanagement of plan assets by plan administrators and that ERISA was designed to prevent these abuses in the future." Id., at 141, n. 8.
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