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Employee Benefits Fiduciary Duty Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

A&O Shearman

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

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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

Haynes Boone

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

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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

Jackson Lewis P.C.

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

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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

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

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

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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

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

Carlton Fields

Plan Sponsor and Asset Manager Considerations Under 401(k) Alternatives Executive Order

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On August 7, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors,” designed to open the use of alternative investments, including private equity and actively...more

Saul Ewing LLP

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

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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

Carlton Fields

Expect Focus - Volume I, January 2025

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The Mysterious Boundary Beyond Which “Personal” Relationships Jeopardize a Director’s Independence - In a recent enforcement action, the SEC concluded that the relationship between James Craigie and an officer of Church &...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

Polsinelli

Department of Labor Proposes Rule on Valuing Stock for ESOP Stock Purchase and Sale Transactions

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On January 16, 2025, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) at the Department of Labor (DOL) released drafts of long-awaited proposed regulations seeking to clarify the definition of “adequate consideration” as...more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

The New Fiduciary Rule (49): Recommendations to Transfer IRAs (NAIC)

The stay of the effective dates of the amended fiduciary regulation and amended exemptions means that the “old” DOL fiduciary regulation (the 5-part test) and the existing exemptions continue in effect indefinitely....more

Lowenstein Sandler LLP

U.S. Department of Labor Issues a New ERISA Fiduciary Rule

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On April 23, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) finalized its latest effort to change the rules for determining who a fiduciary is under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA). Called the...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Between A Rock and A Hard Place... ESG Investments in 401(k) Plan Line-Ups

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

Seyfarth Synopsis: The ever evolving landscape of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors and 401(k) plan investment options may have just become even more complicated....more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Best Interest Standard of Care for Advisors #91: Rollover Recommendations to Participants in Government Plans

The DOL’s expanded definition of fiduciary advice is described in the preamble to PTE 2020-02. The PTE then provides relief for conflicted non-discretionary recommendations (for example, rollover recommendations), if its...more

Morgan Lewis - ML Benefits

Department of Labor Teases Cryptocurrency Interest

Hinting that the US Department of Labor (DOL) is currently working on guidance related to cryptocurrency, the Acting Assistant Secretary for the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration recently commented that the DOL...more

McDermott Will & Schulte

DOL: Path for 401(k) Plans to Offer Private Equity Investment Options

The US Department of Labor (DOL) issued an information letter in June 2020 indicating that, in limited circumstances, it will allow defined contribution retirement plans (such as 401(k) plans) to indirectly invest in private...more

Vinson & Elkins LLP

Stock Drop Litigation Cases Are On The Rise: Will Your Retirement Plan Be A Target?

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Key Takeaways- •Stock price plunges caused by COVID and current market conditions create fertile ground for stockholder litigation, including claims by participants in retirement plans funded with employer securities that...more

Groom Law Group, Chartered

DOL Proposes a New Fiduciary Investment Advice Exemption

On June 29, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) proposed a new exemption from the prohibited transaction provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”) in connection with the...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

SEC Imposes New Standard for Broker-Dealer Investment Advice

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On June 5, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) voted to adopt “Regulation Best Interest,” which is intended to increase the duties a broker-dealer owes to its clients. While SEC-registered investment advisors...more

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer

SEC Adopts Regulation Best Interest and Related Rules and Interpretations

On June 5, 2019, the SEC adopted a package of rules and interpretations (the Adopted Rules) to clarify and further articulate the relationship between retail investors and their broker-dealers or investment advisers....more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

2019 Compensation Committee Handbook

The duties imposed on compensation committees of publicly traded companies have evolved and grown over time. The fifth edition of the Compensation Committee Handbook, authored by our Executive Compensation and Benefits Group,...more

Womble Bond Dickinson

Final Chapter for the DOL Fiduciary Rule

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It’s official. The Department of Labor’s controversial, Obama-era Fiduciary Rule is dead and gone. On June 21, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its mandate certifying its March 15 split decision...more

Carlton Fields

SEC Regulation Best Interest: Charting a Course for Securities and Annuity Sales

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In June, we circulated our fifth article on the continuing saga regarding the standard of conduct for sales of securities and annuities — and the efforts of federal and state regulators to impose new conditions on the...more

Robins Kaplan LLP

Your Daily Dose of Financial News

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The world’s keeping a wary eye on Turkey’s economic well-being, especially given the precipitous drop in the value of the country’s currency (which has pushed up prices for consumers and corporations) and President Erdogan’s...more

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