News & Analysis as of

Employee Benefits Compensation & Benefits Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)

Troutman Pepper Locke

Retirement Revolution: Expanding Access to Private Credit in 401(k)s

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On August 7, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing federal agencies, particularly the Department of Labor, to work on expanding access to alternative investments for participants in 401(k) and other...more

Ballard Spahr LLP

Executive Order Seeks to Expand Access to Crypto and Private Investments in Defined-Contribution Plans

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On August 7, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order (the Order) instructing federal agencies to expand access to alternative asset investments for participants in defined-contribution retirement plans such as 401(k)...more

Jones Day

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

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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

Haynes Boone

DOL Approves the Use of Forfeitures to Offset Employer Contributions

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In a lawsuit currently under appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the court has been asked to decide whether the plan administrator violated its fiduciary duties of prudence and loyalty under ERISA when...more

Carlton Fields

NAIC Annuity Suitability Working Group Issues Guidance on Insurers’ Oversight of Third-Party Supervising Entities

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On August 7, 2025, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Annuity Suitability (A) Working Group issued draft safe harbor regulatory guidance with a comment period that ends on September 22, 2025. The draft...more

Haynes Boone

Compliance Reminder for Executive Top Hat Plans

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Plan sponsors of nonqualified deferred compensation plans (often referred to as “top hat” plans) maintain such plans because they provide tax and economic benefits to covered executives without being subject to many of...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

So, How Can Participants Invest Their Retirement Money?

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Under the current administration, the Department of Labor has once again changed course on its view of permissible investing strategies for retirement plans, warming to crypto and private equity, and confirming their distrust...more

Carlton Fields

Unsafe Harbor? Deregulation and the Limit of the Secure Act Safe Harbor for Selection of Lifetime Income Provider

Carlton Fields on

On January 31, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14192, titled“ Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation.” Its stated purpose was to encourage the reduction of private expenditure required to comply with federal...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

Benefits Basics – When an Employee Becomes Disabled: A Resource Guide for HR & Benefits Professionals

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When an employee becomes disabled, a variety of questions arise regarding that employee’s entitlement to compensation and benefits. As a member of your company’s human resources or employee benefits department, employees and...more

Troutman Pepper Locke

ESG Investing in 401(k) Plans – More Rule Changes on the Way

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In our recent client alert, “Texas Federal Court Allows an ERISA Fiduciary Challenge Against Alleged “ESG Investing” Without Any ESG Funds,” we reported that a Texas district court recently upheld Biden-administration...more

Quarles & Brady LLP

Departments Will Not Enforce 2024 Final Rule under MHPAEA

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The Trump Administration has just announced that it will pause enforcement of the September 2024 final rule (“Final Rule”) under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (“MHPAEA”)....more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Parity in Peril? Plan Sponsors Breathe Easier As Trump Administration Hits Pause on Enforcement of Mental Health Parity Final Rule

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On May 15, 2025 the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury (the “Departments”) announced they will temporarily not enforce their new standards published under the mental health parity Final Rule last...more

Troutman Pepper Locke

Texas Federal Court Allows an ERISA Fiduciary Challenge Against Alleged "ESG Investing" Without Any ESG Funds

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On January 10, 2025, in Spence v. American Airlines, a federal district court in Texas ruled that American Airlines (the company) and the committee overseeing its 401(k) plans (the committee) breached their duty of loyalty...more

Carlton Fields

Considerations for Plan Sponsors in the Wake of Cunningham v. Cornell

Carlton Fields on

Excessive fee cases against plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) have been on the rise for the last decade. ERISA litigation is expanding with novel theories such as forfeiture litigation....more

Ballard Spahr LLP

Business Better Podcast Episode: Bridging Campuses: Legal Insights on Education Industry Consolidation – Labor, Employment, and...

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This episode is part of our “Bridging Campuses: Legal Insights on Education Industry Consolidation” series, where we discuss trends in higher education consolidation and closures, and outline common characteristics of at-risk...more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

The whole job offer fiasco

I have been an ERISA attorney since 1998. More than half my career now has been in my practice for 15 years this April. For about a three-year run from 2007-2010, I had three different jobs, and the whole process of working...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

Taming the Tariffs: Employee Benefit Issues for Employers During Times of Economic Uncertainty – Group Employee Terminations

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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

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Supreme Court Lowers Bar to Pleading Prohibited Transactions, Despite “Serious Concerns” of Meritless Litigation

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In a unanimous decision reversing dismissal of prohibited transaction claims based on fees paid to defined contribution plan recordkeepers, the Supreme Court held that ERISA’s prohibited transaction exemptions are affirmative...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

Benefits Basics - When an Employee Dies: A Resource Guide for HR & Benefits Professionals

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As a member of your company’s human resources or employee benefits department, one of the most difficult calls you may receive is from a colleague or an employee’s family member notifying you of the death of an employee. This...more

Saul Ewing LLP

Correcting Liquidity, Valuation, or Transfer Problems With OTC-Traded Stocks in Retirement Plans to Minimize Enforcement and...

Saul Ewing LLP on

Over 8,000 stocks trade on American stock exchanges, but billions of dollars in daily trades in these listed stocks and 12,000 more unlisted (non-exchange-traded) stocks occur outside of an exchange in Over-The-Counter...more

Saul Ewing LLP

The Friday Five: Five ERISA Litigation Highlights - February 2025

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This month’s Friday Five covers an appellate ruling on a complicated case raising both state and federal claims, an instance of procedural improprieties in the administrative review process informing the court’s substantive...more

Carlton Fields

Insurer Allowed to Benefit From Foreign Tax Credits Distributed by Underlying Funds

Carlton Fields on

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that a life insurance company did not breach its fiduciary duties by retaining the benefits that it derived from foreign tax credits. The plaintiffs argued that, under...more

Pullman & Comley - Labor, Employment and...

Retirement Plan Update – Forfeitures are New Focus of Fiduciary Breach Litigation

Many employer-sponsored defined contributions plans, including 401(k) profit sharing plans and money purchase pension plans include a vesting schedule – a period over which a plan participant earns a nonforfeitable right to...more

DLA Piper

Supreme Court Debates ERISA Exemptions in Cunningham v. Cornell University

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The US Supreme Court heard argument on Wednesday, January 22, 2025 from Cornell University and its employees over dismissal of a class action alleging that Cornell University’s retirement plan paid unreasonable recordkeeping...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

The DOL May Not Actually Want to Hear From You: New Guidance Streamlining the Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program

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The DOL updated its voluntary fiduciary correction program (“VFCP”) which was introduced over 20 years ago to allow plan sponsors to corrected enumerated fiduciary breaches. The amended VFCP now allows for self-correction of...more

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