In all circumstances, governing fiduciaries usually hire agents or "managing fiduciaries" responsible for strategic implementation and oversight of policy decisions made by them. Such persons frequently assume the full-time, skills-intensive work that governing fiduciaries cannot, such as hands-on management of the portfolio, staff and external relationships.

In most Canadian jurisdictions, trustees who are sponsoring employers are required to add an advisory committee to pension governance structures - upon request by a sufficient number of plan members - where input from the latter does not otherwise exist. Few such committees have been established in practice, however. The exception is Quebec where 1990 legislation created a uniform and jurisdiction-wide framework for governance that includes mandatory committees occupying the administrative role. Such committees must consist of at least two representatives of plan members (active and non-active) and one person independent of both the employer and employees. There is no limit on sponsor appointees.

The managing fiduciaries accountable to governing fiduciaries will often further hire agents or "operating fiduciaries" charged with specific administrative assignments executed on a daily basis. These may be investment managers with expertise pertaining to certain asset classes or custodians who retain assets, settle transactions and keep records. A pension fund's relative size, as well as the scope of its portfolio of assets, often determines the commensurate magnitude of its fiduciary bureaucracy and whether it is located internally, externally or both. Non-fiduciary agents who act in advisory and service capacities include actuaries, lawyers and investment consultants.^{Endnote 16}