Republican Attorneys General Object to Proposed Changes to Retirement Funds Fiduciary Rules

Bernard Nash
Cozen O'Connor
Contact
LinkedIn
Facebook
X
Send
Embed

Cozen O'Connor

  • A group of 22 Republican AGs, led by Utah AG Sean Reyes, sent a comment letter to U.S. DOL opposing a proposed rule that removes barriers for retirement plan fiduciaries to consider environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) factors in their investment strategies.
  • The letter argues that the proposed rule, titled Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights, would erode traditional fiduciary duties of creating financial gains for beneficiaries by eliminating the “pecuniary factors only” standard of assessing investment decisions, and would instead encourage, or arguably require, fiduciaries to focus on social and political issues in investment decisions and would be protected from legal action when they do.
  • The letter notes that employees will bear the financial risk associated with social investing, arguing that there is evidence that ESG investment strategies produce lower yields than index funds and that the proposed rule allows relatively new and untested ESG investments to be made available as part of a retirement plan’s default investment options.
Send Print Report

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

© Cozen O'Connor | Attorney Advertising

Written by:

Cozen O'Connor
Cozen O'Connor
Contact
more
less

PUBLISH YOUR CONTENT ON JD SUPRA NOW

  • Increased visibility
  • Actionable analytics
  • Ongoing guidance

Cozen O'Connor on:

Reporters on Deadline

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
Sign Up Log in
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
Custom Email Digest
- hide
- hide