News & Analysis as of

401k Retirement Plan Defined Contribution Plans

K&L Gates LLP

United States: US$12.2 Trillion Opportunity–Executive Order Paves the Way for Easier 401(k) Plan Access to Alternative Investments

K&L Gates LLP on

On 7 August 2025, President Trump signed an executive order intended to modernize the 401(k) investment universe, directing the Secretary of Labor to clarify the US Department of Labor’s (DOL) position on fiduciary duties in...more

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

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

Carlton Fields

Painting Outside the Lines: New Strokes in ERISA Forfeiture Litigation

Carlton Fields on

ERISA forfeiture class action litigation has continued to see various developments and potential new theories emerging in 2025. As Carlton Fields has previously reported, starting in late 2023, a new trend of lawsuits emerged...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

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

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

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

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

401(k) Mutual Fund Fees Hit Historic Lows—Again

The Investment Company Institute (ICI) just confirmed what many of us have seen on the ground: 401(k) mutual fund fees keep dropping, and that’s great news for plan participants....more

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

DOL Begins to Act Under the New Executive Order Aimed to Increase Alternative Investments in Retirement Plans

On August 7, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order (the “Order”) designed to increase access to investment in certain Alternative Assets (defined below), including private equity, through Internal Revenue Code...more

Holland & Knight LLP

Executive Order Calls for More Access to Retirement Plan Alternative Asset Investment Options

Holland & Knight LLP on

President Donald Trump on Aug. 7, 2025, signed an executive order (EO), "Democratizing Access for 401(k) Investors," and published a related fact sheet. The EO expresses the policy of the Trump Administration that "every...more

Cooley LLP

Private Equity and Venture Capital Investments for 401(k) Plans?

Cooley LLP on

On August 7, President Donald Trump signed an executive order (Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors) that has been widely – and mistakenly – reported to open 401(k) plan assets to “alternative...more

Jones Day

White House Opens Door to Broader Inclusion of Alternative Assets in Defined Contribution Retirement Plans

Jones Day on

A hotly anticipated August 7, 2025, executive order, "Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors" ("EO"), aims to reduce regulatory barriers and significantly expand access to "alternative...more

Morrison & Foerster LLP

Executive Order Targets Access to Alternative Assets in Retirement Plans

On August 7, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order (the “Order”) aiming to facilitate the use of alternative investment assets, such as private equity, real estate, venture capital, digital assets, and hedge funds,...more

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

Is Your Defined Contribution Plan Ready for Alternative Assets?

President Trump has issued an Executive Order ("Order") to enable defined contribution plans (e.g. 401(k) and 403(b) plans) to invest in "alternative assets," such as private equity, real estate and digital assets. The Order...more

King & Spalding

Executive Order Seeks to Promote Incorporation of Alternative Assets in 401(k) Plans

King & Spalding on

On August 7, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order entitled “Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors” (the “Executive Order”),1 requiring the Department of Labor (“DOL”) and the Securities...more

Goodwin

Trump Administration’s Executive Order to Facilitate Availability of Alternative Assets in Defined Contribution Plans: What Does...

Goodwin on

On August 7, 2025, the Trump Administration issued a long-awaited executive order (the “Executive Order”) to encourage sponsors of 401(k) and other participant-directed defined-contribution plans that are governed by the...more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

Tips for 401(k) Plan Providers (From Someone Who’s Seen the Industry From the Inside Out)

Fifteen years ago, I walked away from the law firm treadmill, overhead, politics, billable hours, all of it, and went out on my own. I wanted to practice ERISA law in a way that actually added value, not just racked up hours....more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

Plan Design That Works: Why 401(k) Participants Are Saving Smarter

Every once in a while, the data tells a story that plan sponsors should actually feel good about. Vanguard’s latest How America Saves report offers just that, a story of progress. Thanks to smarter plan design choices,...more

Fisher Phillips

Retirement Plan Fiduciaries Must Adjust to New Era of ERISA Litigation: How a Recent SCOTUS Ruling and $39M Jury Award Changed the...

Fisher Phillips on

A Supreme Court decision in April made it easier for plaintiffs to keep ERISA prohibited transaction claims in play longer, and just days later a rare ERISA trial resulted in a huge win for a class of 401(k) plan...more

Husch Blackwell LLP

Supreme Court Decision Means Defense of ERISA Prohibited Transaction Claims Just Got More Difficult and More Protracted

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On April 17, 2025, the Supreme Court decided Cunningham v. Cornell University, unanimously holding that a plaintiff can state a valid claim under ERISA by merely alleging that a plan used “plan assets” to pay a service...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

Taming the Tariffs: Employee Benefit Issues for Employers During Times of Economic Uncertainty – Reducing or Suspending Qualified...

Foley & Lardner LLP on

Many companies are scrambling to quickly assess how to reduce the business impact of the upheaval to U.S. manufacturing and trading with the recent onslaught of tariffs threatened or imposed by the United States and the...more

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

New Proposed Catch-Up Contribution Regulations Answer Many Questions

Background - Many defined contribution plans are designed to permit participants to take advantage of an increased employee contribution limit starting the year they turn 50....more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Missing Participants – New State Unclaimed Property Fund Option for Small Balances

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

On January 14, 2025, the DOL issued Field Assistance Bulletin (FAB) 2025-01, providing sponsors and administrators of ongoing defined contribution plans with a new option for missing participant balances of $1,000 or less:...more

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