News & Analysis as of

Fiduciary Duty Retirement Plan Corporate Governance

ArentFox Schiff

Unlocking Success: How ESOPs Empower Small Businesses and Employees

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Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) are unique employee benefit plans designed to invest primarily in the stock of the sponsoring employer....more

Hogan Lovells

Celebrating a Century: The enduring relevance of the Trustee Act 1925 for UK Pension Trustees

Hogan Lovells on

2025 marks the centenary of the Trustee Act 1925, which received Royal Assent in Parliament on 9 April 1925. This article explores how, 100 years on, the Act continues to provide crucial guidance and protection for trustees,...more

Williams Mullen

PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Navigating Fiduciary Responsibilities in a Tide-Turning ESG Era

Williams Mullen on

On this episode of Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion, host Brydon DeWitt is joined by Ken Barnes, vice president of investment consulting at SageView Advisory Group, who discusses the recent federal ruling against American...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

How to Protect Your ESOP from Lawsuits Over Cash Holdings

At least four lawsuits have recently been filed against employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) fiduciaries alleging a failure to prudently invest cash held in the ESOP trust. While scrutiny of investments in company stock has...more

Polsinelli

ESOP Transactions and the Duty to Monitor Revisited

Polsinelli on

Key Takeaways: Board’s Duty to Monitor the Trustee: A company’s board of directors has a fiduciary duty to monitor the ESOP trustee’s actions in an ESOP transaction, ensuring that the trustee is acting in the exclusive...more

Verrill

Monitoring the Activities of a Plan Fiduciary Committee: Recommendations to a Board of Directors

Verrill on

It is axiomatic that a person who has fiduciary responsibility with respect to an ERISA benefit plan must monitor the performance of any plan service provider or other person to whom it has delegated fiduciary duties on an...more

Husch Blackwell LLP

ESOP Fiduciary Duties When Investing in Non-Stock Assets

Husch Blackwell LLP on

On February 6, 2025, a Pennsylvania federal judge gave preliminary approval to a $2.1 million settlement resolving a class action involving the Pride Mobility ESOP. This case is one of six brought so far—and the second to...more

Verrill

Spence v. American Airlines: A Texas Court’s View of the Duty of Loyalty under ERISA

Verrill on

Since we last discussed environmental, social, and corporate governance (“ESG”) developments in the context of ERISA retirement plans, ESG litigation has taken a rather unexpected turn. Although the plan lineup in Spence v....more

A&O Shearman

Pensions: what's new this week - February 3, 2025

A&O Shearman on

Welcome to your weekly update from the A&O Shearman pensions team, covering all the latest legal and regulatory developments in the world of workplace pensions. New rules on accessing DB surpluses - The Government has...more

Paul Hastings LLP

Federal Court Determines American Airlines, Inc., 401(k) Plan Fiduciaries Breached Their ERISA Fiduciary Duty of Loyalty to...

Paul Hastings LLP on

On January 10th, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas (the court) ruled that American Airlines, Inc. (American) and the American Airlines Employee Benefits Committee (together, the Defendants)...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

A&O Shearman

ESG Investing Takes A Blow In Texas Federal Court

A&O Shearman on

On January 10, 2025, Judge Reed O’Connor of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled, following a four-day bench trial, that an airline breached ERISA fiduciary duties when investing...more

Proskauer - Employee Benefits & Executive...

401(k) Plan Fiduciaries Breached ERISA’s Duty of Loyalty By Allowing ESG Interests To Influence Management Of The Plan

Last week, Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, issued the first-of-its-kind ruling on the merits pertaining to environmental, social, and corporate governance (“ESG”) investing...more

Miller Canfield

American Airlines Breaches Fiduciary Duty of Loyalty with BlackRock ESG Funds in 401(k) Plans

Miller Canfield on

Whether, and the extent to which, a plan fiduciary can consider nonpecuniary environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) objectives in selecting plan investments has been a hot-button issue for many years, with the view on...more

Ropes & Gray LLP

Practical Takeaways from Spence v. American Airlines, Inc. for ERISA Plan Fiduciaries

Ropes & Gray LLP on

On January 10, 2025, Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas issued a much-anticipated ruling in Spence v. American Airlines, Inc., which marks the first time that a federal judge has written an on-the-merits...more

Mintz

Federal Court Rules ESG-Guided Investing of 401(k) Plan Is a Breach of Fiduciary Duty

Mintz on

Following a bench trial, Judge O'Connor (N.D. Tex.) held that “that Defendants breached their fiduciary duty by failing to loyally act solely in the retirement plan's best financial interests by allowing their corporate...more

Goodwin

Minding the Store: Unanticipated ESG Issues Affecting ERISA Fiduciary Supervision

Goodwin on

A recent summary judgment decision from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in an ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) class action challenging the alleged impact of environmental, social,...more

Holland & Hart - The Benefits Dial

The Time Has Come, A Fact’s A Fact: Consider Adding a Welfare Plan Committee

The time may have come to add a welfare plan committee to your company’s governance of employee benefit plans. New legal obligations and other developments impose fiduciary risks for welfare plans similar to what already...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

ESG: Important New Considerations for Employers

Consideration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues is becoming increasingly important for companies when conducting business and in dealings with investors and employees. The increased emphasis on ESG poses...more

Holland & Hart - The Benefits Dial

Should I Pay Or Should I No(t) Now: Which Expenses Can be Paid with Plan Assets?

One question that often comes up is whether an expense related to an ERISA plan can be paid with plan assets. The decision of whether to use ERISA plan assets to pay an expense is an ERISA fiduciary decision. With the recent...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

U.S. Labor Department Tells Retirement Plans to Focus on the Money, Not Environmental or Social Issues

The U.S. Department of Labor recently finalized regulations that are likely to limit the use of retirement investments focused on environmental and social issues. On October 30, DOL issued a rule entitled “Financial Factors...more

Mayer Brown Free Writings + Perspectives

The Department of Labor’s ESG-less Final ESG Rule

On October 30, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) released its final regulation (“Final Rule”) relating to a fiduciary’s consideration of environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) factors when making investment...more

Latham & Watkins LLP

US Department of Labor Puts ESG Investing on Ice

Latham & Watkins LLP on

In its finalized rule amending ERISA, the DOL makes financial factors paramount in a fiduciary’s responsibility to investors. On October 30, 2020, the US Department of Labor (DOL) published Financial Factors in Selecting...more

Cooley LLP

Blog: Will the DOL put the kibosh on ESG investing?

Cooley LLP on

It would be hard to miss the increased focus of investors—especially institutional investors—on environmental, social and governance issues. From multiple surveys showing the importance to investors of ESG factors to...more

Benesch

Perspectives - September/October 2015

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In a decision in which no opinion commanded a majority, the Ohio Supreme Court sided with a private entity — a charter school operator — in a dispute over the ownership of personal property purchased by the operator with...more

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