Overview The U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) on December 15, 2020 issued a release (the “Release”) finalizing Prohibited Transaction Class Exemption (“PTCE”) 2020-2 (the “Final Exemption”) for retirement accounts...more
1/20/2021
/ Best Interest Standard ,
Biden Administration ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Fiduciary Rule ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Management ,
Regulation BI ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Retirement Plan ,
Rollover Equity
Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) on December 15, 2020 issued a release (the “Release”) finalizing an important new initiative for retirement accounts (“Plans”) that are subject to the Employee Retirement...more
Overview -
At the end of last week, on December 11, 2020, the Department of Labor (the “DOL”) released a Final Rule, Fiduciary Duties Regarding Proxy Voting and Shareholder Rights (the “Final Rule”), which addresses the...more
The U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) on October 30, 2020 released a final regulation (the “Final Regulation”) relating to the consideration of non-pecuniary factors by fiduciaries of employee benefit plans (“Plans”) that...more
A substantial portion of available global investment capital is held under private U.S. pension and other employee benefit plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”). At the same time, for...more
5/16/2020
/ Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Field Assistance Bulletins ,
Investment Management ,
Political Parties ,
Retirement Plan ,
Trump Administration
A national emergency was declared on March 13, 2020, as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of that declaration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued emergency declarations for every state,...more
5/14/2020
/ Balloon Payments ,
COBRA ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Notice Requirements ,
Relief Measures ,
State of Emergency ,
Temporary Regulations ,
U.S. Treasury
In Dorman v. Charles Schwab Corp., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held on August 20, 2019 that claims under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) can generally be subject to mandatory...more
9/11/2019
/ 401k ,
American Express v Italian Colors Restaurant ,
Arbitration ,
Best Interest Contract Exemptions ,
Class Action ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Fiduciary Rule ,
Field Assistance Bulletins ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Putative Class Actions
On December 22, 2017, the tax reform bill, informally known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Act”), was signed by President Trump. As we noted in our prior OnPoint (available here) with respect to earlier versions of the...more
12/27/2017
/ 529 Plans ,
Affordable Care Act ,
Broker Commissions ,
CEOs ,
CFOs ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Executive Compensation ,
Individual Mandate ,
Individual Retirement Account (IRA) ,
IRA Rollovers ,
Moving ,
Pay-for-Performance ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Restricted Stocks ,
Retirement Plan ,
Roth Conversions ,
Sales Commissions ,
Section 162(m) ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Student Loans ,
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ,
Tax Deferral ,
Tax Exempt Entities ,
Tax Reform
The U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) published in the Federal Register on July 6, 2017 a Request for Information (the “RFI”) regarding the final regulation defining who is a “fiduciary” of an employee benefit plan as a...more
7/8/2017
/ Best Interest Contract Exemptions ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Fiduciary Rule ,
Investment Adviser ,
IRS ,
Mutual Funds ,
Presidential Memorandum ,
Prohibited Transactions ,
Public Comment ,
Request For Information ,
Rollbacks ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Trump Administration
In its June 2014 decision in Dudenhoeffer v. Fifth Third Bank, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously declined to recognize a “presumption of prudence” that had favored retirement-plan fiduciaries faced with allegations of...more
Over the years, U.S. employers that sponsor “401(k)” and other retirement plans, and plan fiduciaries, have increasingly become the subject of significant and potentially expensive litigation under the Employee Retirement...more