On April 23, 2024, the US Department of Labor (DOL) released its Final Rule 4.0 regarding ERISA fiduciary investment advice, including amended exemptions for conflicted investment advice.

Our initial analysis of the Final Rule, linked below, includes the following observations:

- The Final Rule preserves the core of the proposal – the extension of “investment advice” fiduciary status broadly to investment and insurance professionals, and the primacy of amended PTE 2020-02 as relief for conflicted investment advice.

- Accordingly, it remains vulnerable to claims of regulatory overreach in litigation challenging the Rule.

- The refinements from the proposal relate primarily to peripheral matters, although some are meaningful. The

- Final Rule in the main has indirect effects for plan sponsors, and consequential effects for the marketing and delivery of investment products and services. The effects for insurance are complex.

- There are a number of important questions and uncertainties under the Rule, some of which bear on compliance required by the initial effective date of September 23, 2024.