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
The U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) on August 31, 2020 proposed a regulation (the “Proposed Proxy Regulation”) that would apply to how fiduciaries under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”)...more
9/19/2020
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Duty of Loyalty ,
Duty of Prudence ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Popular ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Proxy Voting ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholder Rights ,
Trump Administration
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
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare (the “ACA”) has survived two trips to the U.S. Supreme Court. It remains to be seen whether there will be a third. ...more
12/24/2019
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Appeals ,
Congressional Authority ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Health Insurance ,
Individual Mandate ,
Remand ,
Severability Doctrine ,
Shared Responsibility Rule ,
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ,
Taxing Power ,
Trump Administration
The recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in the Sun Capital Partners case may allay some of the concerns that private-equity and other investment funds that acquire or invest in portfolio...more
12/13/2019
/ Aggregation Rules ,
Appeals ,
Controlled Groups ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Joint and Several Liability ,
Multiemployer Plan ,
Partnership-in-Fact ,
PBGC ,
Pensions ,
Portfolio Companies ,
Private Equity Funds ,
Reversal ,
Sun Capital Partners ,
Withdrawal Liability
The Delaware Chancery Court rejected an attempt by Tesla’s Board of Directors to dismiss a challenge to CEO Elon Musk’s “extraordinary” 2018 compensation package. Because Musk is also Tesla’s controlling stockholder, the...more
10/21/2019
/ Board of Directors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Burden-Shifting ,
Business Judgment Rule ,
Compensation Committee ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Controlling Stockholders ,
Elon Musk ,
Entire Fairness Standard ,
Executive Compensation ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
MFW ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Ratification ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Tesla
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
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “ACA”) has survived two trips to the U.S. Supreme Court. It now appears as though a third is likely....more
12/21/2018
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Commerce Clause ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Individual Mandate ,
SCOTUS ,
Severability Doctrine ,
Shared Responsibility Rule ,
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ,
Tax Penalties ,
Taxing Power ,
Texas v US
The U.S. Department of Labor’s amended “investment advice” fiduciary rule need no longer ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee. So - ding dong, the rule is dead....more
Fiduciary rule, we hardly knew ya. The death knell for the DOL’s amended rule appears to be sounding this week with the expected mandate from the Fifth Circuit effectuating the vacatur of the amended rule in the case of...more
5/9/2018
/ Amended Rules ,
Best Interest Contract Exemptions ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Chamber of Commerce ,
Collateralized Loan Obligations ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Rule ,
Investment Adviser ,
Retirement Plan ,
Risk Retention ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Vacated
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, on March 16, 2018, struck a blow to healthcare industry efforts to exclude certain communications subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) from...more
3/29/2018
/ Appeals ,
Arbitrary and Capricious ,
ATDS ,
Auto-Dialed Calls ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Exemptions ,
FCC ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Patient Privacy Rights ,
PHI ,
Prior Express Consent ,
Rite Aid ,
TCPA
It has been a long and winding road for the amended fiduciary regulation (the "Regulation") and the related new and amended exemptions (collectively, the "Rule") of the U.S. Department of Labor (the "DOL") under the Employee...more
3/26/2018
/ Appeals ,
Arbitrary and Capricious ,
Best Interest Contract Exemptions ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Rule ,
Investment Adviser ,
Lack of Authority ,
Retirement Funds ,
Secretary of Labor ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Trump Administration ,
Vacated
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”) today (August 9, 2017) submitted a Notice of Administrative Action in the Thrivent v. Acosta litigation (D. Minn.). The Notice relates to the final regulation that defines who is a...more
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
It has been a long and winding road for the amended fiduciary regulation (the "Regulation") of the U.S. Department of Labor (the "DOL") under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA"). The highly...more
5/30/2017
/ Best Interest Contract Exemptions ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Delays ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Enforcement ,
Exemptions ,
Fiduciary Rule ,
Field Assistance Bulletins ,
Final Rules ,
Individual Retirement Account (IRA) ,
Investment Adviser ,
Obama Administration ,
Prohibited Transactions ,
Retirement Plan ,
Secretary of Labor ,
Trump Administration
New York City’s mayor signed legislation captioned, “Prohibiting Employers From Inquiring About a Prospective Employee’s Salary History” (Int. No. 1253-A) (the “NYC Salary Law”) on May 4, 2017. The NYC Salary Law amends the...more
The U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) released its first set of FAQs (the “FAQs”) regarding the DOL’s recently finalized “investment advice” regulation and various related exemptions (collectively, the “Final Rules”) on...more
11/8/2016
/ Best Interest Contract Exemptions ,
Compensation Agreements ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Exceptions ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Fiduciary Rule ,
Final Rules ,
Insurance Industry ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
Investment Adviser ,
Prohibited Transactions
Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Amgen v. Harris, in which the Court revisited and clarified its 2014 holding in Dudenhoeffer v. Fifth Third Bancorp.2 Both cases concern the application of a...more
7/11/2016
/ Amgen ,
Amgen v Harris ,
Breach of Duty ,
Class Action ,
Duty of Prudence ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
FIfth Third Bancorp v Dudenhoeffer ,
Moench Presumption ,
More Harm Than Good Standard ,
Plan Administrators ,
Pleading Standards ,
Retirement Plan ,
SCOTUS ,
Stock Drop Litigation
The recent opinion by the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on remand from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in the Sun Capital Partners case may be troubling to private equity funds and...more
The U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) on April 6, 2016 released the final version of its “investment advice” regulation and accompanying prohibited transaction exemptions, a highly-anticipated milestone that is the...more
5/27/2016
/ Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Best Interest Contract Exemptions ,
Brokers ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Final Rules ,
Individual Retirement Account (IRA) ,
Investment Adviser ,
Retirement Plan