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Fiduciary Duty Employee Benefits Trump Administration

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

Verrill

Coming Soon to Your 401(k) Plan: Tontines and Other Exotic Investments!

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Participants in 401(k) plans and other defined contribution retirement plans may soon have the opportunity to invest their plan accounts in a variety of high-risk and potentially high-return assets. Touted as an effort to...more

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

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

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

Here we go again

Here’s the short version: the Department of Labor’s decision to reopen the Biden-era ESG rule is overdue—and welcome....more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

Crypto in 401(k) Plans? Sure—But Let’s Not Lose Our Minds

Well, that didn’t take long. In what’s becoming a routine political tug-of-war, the Trump administration (yes, back again) has rescinded the Biden-era Department of Labor (DOL) guidance cautioning plan sponsors against...more

Mayer Brown

A Return to Investment Neutrality? DOL Rescinds Guidance Discouraging Plan Fiduciaries from Considering Cryptocurrencies

Mayer Brown on

On May 28, 2025, the US Department of Labor (the “Labor Department”) issued Compliance Assistance Release No. 2025-01 (the “2025 Release”), memorializing the Labor Department’s decision to rescind Compliance Release No....more

Kilpatrick

5 Key Takeaways | Plan Investments and Fiduciary Risk Mitigation in the Trump Era

Kilpatrick on

The landscape for retirement plan investments and fiduciary risks is shifting in the early part of the second Trump Administration, both due to changes in the administration’s policies and developments in the courts....more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

DOL changes? Maybe not so fast

With the change of Presidential administrations, there was certainly a discussion on what the Department of Labor (DOL) may do under President Trump regarding 401(k) plans. As far as regulations, an Executive Order may halt...more

Carlton Fields

President Issues Regulatory Freeze: Will the DOL Fiduciary Rule Saga Continue?

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The regulatory pendulum has been swinging toward deregulation since Donald Trump was inaugurated last month. On his first day in office, January 20, 2025, President Trump issued a presidential memorandum titled “Regulatory...more

McDermott Will & Schulte

Trump Places DOL’s ESOP Proposals in Regulatory Moratorium

On January 16, 2025, the US Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) released two pieces of guidance that, if finalized, would dramatically change the landscape for fiduciaries responsible...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

To Vote or Not to Vote — That is the Question

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

Seyfarth Synopsis: On the heels of the Department of Labor’s June proposed regulation throwing cold water on plan fiduciaries’ selecting investments in the environment, social and governance (ESG) space, the agency has now...more

Robins Kaplan LLP

Your Daily Dose of Financial News

Robins Kaplan LLP on

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

Ballard Spahr LLP

Fifth Circuit Strikes Down DOL Investment Advice Fiduciary Rules

Ballard Spahr LLP on

The Fifth Circuit on March 15 vacated U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) regulations that redefined the circumstances in which a person who provides investment advice in connection with a retirement plan or individual retirement...more

Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP

2017 in Review: ERISA guidance and enforcement

In 2017, the principal focus in the administration of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA), by the Department of Labor (DOL) appropriately remained one of the extraordinary developments...more

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer

ERISA Fiduciary Rule Facing Precarious Future

Since its original release as a proposed rule in April 2015 and as a final rule a year later, the Department of Labor’s (DOL's) so-called fiduciary rule — which expands the “investment advice fiduciary” definition under the...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Plan Sponsors Should Take Action during the New Fiduciary Rule Transition Relief Period

On November 29, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced an extension to July 1, 2019, of the previously established deadline for transition relief from many provisions of the new fiduciary rule applicable to investment...more

Littler

Labor Secretary Discusses DOL Priorities During House Committee Hearing

Littler on

Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta fielded a range of questions on the DOL's priorities during a November 15 hearing before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Although members of the Committee inquired about...more

Troutman Pepper Locke

Treasury Report Addresses Regulatory Approaches Affecting Investment Companies and Their Advisers

Troutman Pepper Locke on

As required by President Trump’s Executive Order 13772, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a report, “A Financial System That Creates Economic Opportunities, Asset Management and Insurance,” addressing the regulatory...more

Littler

WPI Insider Briefing: After ACA "Repeal and Replace" Effort Fails, What's Next For Employers on Health Care and Other Workplace...

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Last month began with significant momentum but long odds that Senate Republicans would pass legislation repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In the early hours of July 28, GOP efforts came to a screeching...more

Bowditch & Dewey

DOL Fiduciary Rule: Love It or Hate It, It’s Here

Bowditch & Dewey on

If you have an account in a retirement plan where you work or you own an Individual Retirement Account, you may get investment advice from an investment advisor. You might expect that advisor to give you advice that was in...more

Littler

DOL Fiduciary Rule Still a Go for June 9, but its Future Remains Uncertain

Littler on

United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) Secretary Alexander Acosta recently announced that the final DOL fiduciary regulations (the “Fiduciary Rule”) will go into effect on June 9, 2017. In an op-ed in the Wall Street...more

Burr & Forman

Fiduciary-Rule Litigation Moves to Court of Public Opinion

Burr & Forman on

Last week Labor Secretary Acosta chose a Wall Street Journal op-ed to announce DOL’s decision not to delay the “fiduciary rule” past the once-extended June 9 effective date....more

Dickinson Wright

The Department of Labor Confirms June 9th as the Effective Date of the Fiduciary Rule: What Employers Need to Know Now

Dickinson Wright on

On May 22, 2017, Secretary of Labor Jim Acosta announced that, after having been delayed 60 days, the Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) Conflict of Interest Rule (“Fiduciary Rule”) will largely apply on June 9, 2017. At that...more

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Fiduciary Rule Delayed 60 Days - DOL delays application of Fiduciary rule. ERISA plan fiduciaries and service providers struggle...

On April 7, 2017, the Department of Labor (DOL) published a final rule delaying the applicability date of the “Fiduciary” rule and certain “Prohibited Transaction Exemption” rules (the Rules) for 60 days from April 10, 2017...more

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