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Fiduciary Duty Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) Financial Services Industry

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

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

Are We Robbing Peter to Pay Paul?

The 401(k) match has long been one of the most powerful tools for building retirement savings. It’s the “free money” we’ve all been trained to chase—and advise our clients to chase. So when Fidelity, Schwab, and others start...more

Polsinelli

DOL Rescinds 2022 Guidance Concerning Cryptocurrency Investments in 401(k) Plans

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On May 28, 2025, the Department of Labor (DOL) rescinded its 2022 guidance that cautioned retirement plan fiduciaries to exercise “extreme care” in permitting cryptocurrency and other digital asset investments in retirement...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

Proskauer - Employee Benefits & Executive...

Eleventh Circuit Confirms Foreign Tax Credits Owned by Insurance Company Not “Plan Assets” of 401(k) Plan Under ERISA

In late October 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled in Romano v. Hancock Life Insurance Company, F.4th 729 (11th Cir. 2024) that certain foreign tax credits that were generated as a result...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

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

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

A&O Shearman

Texas District Court ESG ruling has broader implications for ERISA plan fiduciaries

A&O Shearman on

On January 10, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (the “Court”) held, in Spence v. American Airlines, Inc., that American Airlines (“American”) and the American Airlines Employee Benefits...more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

Don’t Fall For These 401(k) Plan Provider Gimmicks

A “sales gimmick” is a term that refers to a method a business employs to immediately generate demand for its product or service. I just bought Fan Fest tickets 6 months in advance because they were giving me a $30...more

K&L Gates LLP

QPAM Amendments Impact on CITs: What Banks and Their Advisers Need to Know

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Effective 17 June 2024, the US Department of Labor (DOL) adopted comprehensive amendments to Prohibited Transaction Exemption (PTE) 84-14, also known as the “QPAM exemption” (Exemption)....more

Carlton Fields

DOL Fiduciary Rule Saga Continues: 2024 Fiduciary Rule Halted by Texas District Courts

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The Federation of Americans for Consumer Choice v. Department of Labor case was the first case challenging the Department of Labor’s 2024 retirement security rule defining who is an investment advice fiduciary. It was...more

Hall Benefits Law

Major Differences Between DOL’s Proposed and Final ERISA Investment Advice Regulations

Hall Benefits Law on

The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) final regulations broaden the definition of fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to include more investment advisors. However, the eight hundred pages of...more

Carlton Fields

The DOL Fiduciary Rule Is Here – Are You an Investment Advice Fiduciary?

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The Department of Labor’s final definition of “investment advice” fiduciary regulation makes many more individuals fiduciaries under both the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and the Internal Revenue Code. Where for...more

Polsinelli

New Final Department of Labor Rules on Investment Advice are Immediately Challenged in Court

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The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) recently issued final, new regulations (the “rules”) regarding who is considered an investment advice fiduciary that are slated to become generally effective on September 23, 2024, as well...more

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck

Fiduciary Rule 4.0 Released

On April 23, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published the “Retirement Security Rule: Definition of an Investment Advice Fiduciary,” which makes changes to the definition of “ fiduciary” for purposes of the Employee...more

A&O Shearman

DOL Issues Final Rule Amending QPAM Exemption

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On April 3, 2024, the Department of Labor (DOL) released its final rule amending Prohibited Transaction Exemption 84-14 (PTE 84-14). PTE 84-14 exempts from ERISA’s prohibited transaction rules certain transactions between...more

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

Cascading Into Spring March 2024 - Cascading Security

With the increasing complexity of fund structures and the growing prevalence of US Pension Funds in the European market, we have seen an uptick in the number of queries particularly from European banks and funds around how to...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

Williams Mullen

PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - New Federal Rule Aims to Hold Investment Advisors to a Higher Standard

Williams Mullen on

On this episode of Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion, host Brydon DeWitt is joined by Ali Pino, a principal and retirement plan consultant with Spherient Advisors, who discusses the proposed Department of Labor rule...more

Troutman Pepper Locke

DOL Proposed Rule: New Definition of "Investment Advice Fiduciary"

Troutman Pepper Locke on

On October 31, the Department of Labor (DOL) released a proposed rule (the Proposed Rule) aiming to redefine and expand who qualifies as an “investment advice fiduciary” under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of...more

A&O Shearman

DOL Proposes New Fiduciary Rule Aimed at Investment Advice to Individual Retirement Investors

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More than five years after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision to vacate the Department of Labor’s (DOL) 2016 fiduciary rule, the DOL has proposed a new rule that, once again, attempts to re-define when financial...more

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

Texas Federal Judge: DOL ESG Investing Rule Does Not Violate ERISA

On September 21, 2023, a Texas federal court dismissed an action commenced by more than two dozen Republican state attorneys general challenging a 2022 Department of Labor (DOL) Rule that addressed consideration of ESG...more

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

American Airlines Moves to Dismiss Suit Challenging Inclusion of ESG Funds in Retirement Plan

In August 2023, American Airlines, Inc. moved to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed against the airline for allegedly jeopardizing employees’ retirement savings by investing in environmental, social and governance (ESG)...more

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