News & Analysis as of

Fiduciary Duty Department of Labor (DOL) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Carlton Fields

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

Carlton Fields on

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

Ropes & Gray LLP

Planning to Take Advantage of Executive Order on Alternatives in 401(k)s: Five Key Takeaways and Five Action Items for Managers

Ropes & Gray LLP on

On August 7, 2025, President Trump issued a long-rumored executive order (the “Order”) that calls for expanded access to private equity and other alternative investments for 401(k) plans and their participants. 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

Bond Schoeneck & King PLLC

The Trump Private Equity Order: What Plan Fiduciaries Need to Know Now

Background - On Aug. 7, 2025, the president issued an executive order that may result in an expansion in the types of holdings common in 401(k), 403(b) and other defined contribution plans....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

Proskauer - Employee Benefits & Executive...

Trump Signs Executive Order Directing the DOL and SEC to Facilitate 401(k) Plan Access to Alternative Assets

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

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Democratizing Access To Alternative Assets For 401(K) Investors (Trump EO Tracker)

This executive order directs the Department of Labor to reevaluate and clarify its guidance under ERISA regarding fiduciary duties related to including alternative assets in 401(k) retirement plans. It aims to expand access...more

Lathrop GPM

New Executive Order Opens the Door for Alternative Assets as 401(k) Plan Options

Lathrop GPM on

On August 7, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order entitled, Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(K) Investors (“the EO”), which directs the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department...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

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

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

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

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

Polsinelli on

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

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

The New Fiduciary Rule (48): Recommendations to Transfer IRAs (DOL)

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

Morgan Lewis

DOL Removes Restrictions on Recommendations of Principal Traded Assets from Prohibited Transaction Exemption 2020-02

Morgan Lewis on

The US Department of Labor (DOL) amended Prohibited Transaction Exemption 2020-02 (PTE 2020-02) to provide relief for recommendations of all types of principal trades. This change, effective September 23, 2024 and subject to...more

SEC Compliance Consultants, Inc. (SEC³)

What Advisers Need to Know Now About Giving Rollover Advice after September 23, 2024

This article was originally published on Kitces.com, on May 15, 2024, and is available at at DoL’s Retirement Security Rule & PTE 2020-02 Amendment: What Advisers Need to Know Now about Giving Rollover Advice After September...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Why Retirement Plan Sponsors and Fiduciaries Need to Know about the SEC Cybersecurity Amendments

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

In 2021, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued cybersecurity guidance for ERISA-covered retirement plans. The guidance expands the duties retirement plan fiduciaries have when selecting service providers. Specifically, the DOL...more

Seward & Kissel LLP

DOL Publishes Final Regulation Expanding the Definition of an ERISA Fiduciary

Seward & Kissel LLP on

On April 25, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) finalized a collection of regulatory changes in its ongoing quest to update the definition of a “fiduciary” under ERISA and Section 4975 of the Internal Revenue Code...more

Lowenstein Sandler LLP

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

Lowenstein Sandler LLP on

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

Carlton Fields

New DOL Fiduciary Rule Proposal: Still the Same Old Act…

Carlton Fields on

On November 3, 2023, the Department of Labor proposed yet another fiduciary rule, the latest in more than a decade of DOL efforts to ensure that every financial professional who sells an investment product to a retirement...more

BCLP

Call for Vacatur of Massachusetts’ Fiduciary Duty Standard for Broker/Dealers

BCLP on

On August 25, 2023, Justice Wendlandt of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued a ruling in Robinhood Financial, LLC v. Secretary of the Commonwealth which upheld the legality of the fiduciary duty standard imposed...more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Rollovers, Regulation, Litigation: Where Are We and What’s Next?

Let’s take a break from my SECURE 2.0 series of articles to discuss what is going on with the DOL’s fiduciary rule. As background, in the preamble to Prohibited Transaction Exemption (PTE) 2020-02, the DOL re-interpreted...more

Morgan Lewis - ML Benefits

ERISA Cybersecurity Compliance: SEC Proposed Rule May Provide Metrics for Evaluating Certain SEC-Regulated Plan Service Providers

In 2021, the US Department of Labor (DOL) issued cybersecurity guidance (the DOL Guidance) that sets out the DOL’s views on what processes fiduciaries of benefit plans regulated by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act...more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Investment Advisers: The Independent Duties of Care and Loyalty

There appear to be conflicting views of whether an investment adviser’s duty of care can be satisfied by disclosures that satisfy the duty of loyalty. That is, if an adviser discloses the receipt of additional compensation...more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Best Interest Standard of Care for Advisors #97: The SEC Requirements for Rollover Recommendations

The DOL’s expanded definition of fiduciary advice is described in the preamble to PTE 2020-02. When conflicted fiduciary advice is given to retirement investors (that is, retirement plans, participants (including rollovers),...more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Best Interest Standard of Care for Advisors #94: Maintenance of Documentation for Compliance with PTE 2020-02

The DOL’s expanded definition of fiduciary advice is described in the preamble to PTE 2020-02. When conflicted fiduciary advice is given to retirement investors (that is, retirement plans, participants (including...more

136 Results
 / 
View per page
Page: of 6

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
- hide
- hide