News & Analysis as of

401k Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) Department of Labor (DOL)

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

The DOL is Right to Scrap the Annuity Safe Harbor

The Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) is once again carrying water for the annuity industry, this time urging the Department of Labor to retain a regulatory safe harbor that’s already obsolete. The safe harbor in question,...more

Keating Muething & Klekamp PLL

Benefits Monthly Minute - August 2025

The August Monthly Minute brings you the latest guidance on ERISA retirement plan investment in alternative assets and highlights a recent ruling in mental health parity nonquantitative treatment limitation (NQTL) litigation....more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

Small Employers + PEPs: The DOL Wants Your Input

The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) just dropped an RFI (RIN 1210–AC10) and some limited guidance on pooled employer plans (PEPs), asking for public input, especially from small...more

Carlton Fields

New Kids on the Blockchain: Cryptocurrencies in 401(k) Accounts

Carlton Fields on

Department of Labor (DOL) watchers have experienced regulatory whiplash in recent years. During the Biden administration, for example, the DOL issued Compliance Assistance Release (CAR) No. 2022-01, which flouted its...more

Snell & Wilmer

Ninth Circuit Weighs Employer’s Use of Non‑Vested 401(k) Funds

Snell & Wilmer on

What can employers do with non-vested employer contributions? Under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”), employers may require an employee to work for a set number of years before any company...more

Hall Benefits Law

President Signals Policy Shift With High Stakes for 401(k) Plans

Hall Benefits Law on

On August 7, 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order directing federal agencies to broaden retirement plan participants’ access to alternative assets—including cryptocurrency, private equity, private credit,...more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

Just Push Play: The Fiduciary Reality Check For 401(k) Plan Sponsors

I t was 2001 when Aerosmith dropped Just Push Play, and while it was no Rocks or Toys in the Attic, it packed a punch. That title track? A distorted, energetic anthem about dropping the hesitation and just going forward. No...more

Fox Rothschild LLP

Trump Executive Order Calls for Review of Alternative Assets in 401(k) Plans

Fox Rothschild LLP on

President Trump has issued an Executive Order (EO) that could reshape how alternative assets are treated in defined contribution retirement plans. The directive requires the Department of Labor (DOL) to revisit its past...more

Haynes Boone

DOL Rescinds its Prior Guidance on Alternative Assets in 401(k) Plans

Haynes Boone on

On August 12, 2025, the DOL issued a press release (the “Release”) announcing that it is rescinding its prior guidance regarding the use of alternative assets as an investment option under a 401(k) plan’s investment menu....more

Snell & Wilmer

Opening the Door to Alternatives: What Fiduciaries Should Know About the New 401(k) Executive Order

Snell & Wilmer on

On August 7, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order titled Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors. The directive marks a significant policy shift by encouraging regulators to make it easier...more

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck

Trump Administration Begins Swift Implementation of 401(k) EO

The Trump administration is moving quickly to implement the president’s Aug. 7 executive order (EO) to expand retirement savers’ access to alternative investments in private markets through defined contribution (DC) plans,...more

A&O Shearman

Alts for All: Administration Acts to Open 401(K) Plans to New Asset Classes

A&O Shearman on

On August 7, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order (Order) aimed at easing the path for ERISA fiduciaries to make “alternative asset” investments available to participant-directed defined contribution plan...more

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

Pooled Employer Plans: DOL Issues New Interpretive Guidance and Tips for Employers

On July 29, 2025, the Department of Labor (the “DOL”) published limited interpretive guidance regarding pooled employer plans, or “PEPs,” in the Federal Register (the “New Guidance”). Although PEPs are available to all sizes...more

McDermott Will & Schulte

Trump EO seeks to expand access to alternative investments in retirement plans

On August 7, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order titled “Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors.” The order seeks to clarify the obligations of Employee Retirement Income Security Act...more

Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP

Tax Bytes: Week of August 18, 2025

Welcome to this week’s edition of Tax Bytes. Our team of tax lawyers is actively monitoring for federal and international tax developments and issues of note. Each week we pull together the items we deem most important to...more

Haynes Boone

Trump Administration Issues Executive Order Regarding 401(k) Plan Investments in Alternative Assets

Haynes Boone on

On August 7, 2025, the Trump Administration issued an executive order to provide 401(k) plan participants with greater access to invest in “alternative assets” (the “Executive Order”). Pursuant to the Executive Order,...more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

Why I Love Bitcoin—But Still Don’t Want It in Your 401(k)

Let me start with a confession: I love Bitcoin. I admire what it represents—decentralization, monetary freedom, borderless transactions, and the kind of disruption that makes traditional finance sweat. I hold it, I follow it,...more

Vedder Price

President Trump Signs Executive Order Seeking to Facilitate 401(k) Access to Private Funds and Digital Assets

Vedder Price on

On August 7, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at facilitating and expanding access to alternative investments — such as private equity, private credit, real estate and digital assets like cryptocurrency —...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

A Fiduciary’s Next Steps After Trump’s August 2025 Executive Order: Opening the 401(k) Door to Alternative Investments

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

On August 7, 2025, President Donald J. Trump issued an Executive Order designed to broaden access to alternative investments, such as private equity, commodities, real estate, and certain digital assets, for participants in...more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

When 401(k) Contributions Disappear: The Harsh Lessons of Micone v. iProcess Online, Inc.

You can cut corners in business. You can play fast and loose with your vendor contracts. You can even get away with sloppy recordkeeping—at least for a while. But when you mess with employee 401(k) contributions, you’re not...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Executive Order Opens the Door to Alternative Assets in 401(k) Plans

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

Shortly following our Legal Update regarding considerations for institutional investors investing in funds alongside retail investors, on August 7, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order (Order) entitled...more

ArentFox Schiff

EO Seeks to Expand Access to Alternative Asset Investments in Retirement Plans

ArentFox Schiff on

On August 7, the White House issued an Executive Order (EO) aimed at broadening Americans’ access to alternative asset investments within employer-sponsored defined-contribution retirement plans, such as 401(k) plans....more

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

Labor Dept. permits fiduciaries to consider alternative investments for 401(k)s

On August 12, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration rescinded guidance from December 2021 that discouraged fiduciaries from considering alternative assets in the list of investment options...more

Vedder Price

Alternative Investments and 401(k) Plans

Vedder Price on

On August 7, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order (the “Order”) directing the Department of Labor (“DOL”) to re-examine guidance on a fiduciary’s duties under ERISA regarding alternative asset investments in 401(k)...more

Morgan Lewis - ML Benefits

Latest Executive Order Could Redefine Retirement Investing

The US administration recently issued an executive order to expand access to alternative investments in ERISA-governed retirement accounts. The order titled Democratizing Access to Alternative Investments for America's...more

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