Point-of-Sale Finance Series: Understanding the Development and Regulation of Buy Now, Pay Later Products — The Consumer Finance Podcast
Enhancing Card Partnerships and Compliance: A Conversation With Matthew Goldman — Payments Pros – The Payments Law Podcast
Regulatory Rollback: CFPB’s Withdrawal of Informal Guidance Sparks New Litigation Dynamics – The Consumer Finance Podcast
Sunday Book Review: August 10, 2025, The More Books from The Ethicsverse Library Edition
AI Today in 5: August 6, 2025, The Rethinking Compliance Episode
Wild Times for the Community Reinvestment Act
Suluki Secrets: Behind the Scenes of Reasonable Investigations — FCRA Focus Podcast
The Current State of the Holder Rule: Friend or Foe? — Moving the Metal: The Auto Finance Podcast
Regulatory Rollback: Legal Challenges and Opportunities in Earned-Wage Access — Payments Pros – The Payments Law Podcast
Regulatory Rollback: Legal Challenges and Opportunities in Earned-Wage Access — The Consumer Finance Podcast
Daily Compliance News: July 22, 2025, The I-9 Hell Edition
Compliance Tip of the Day: Avoiding CCO Liability
2 Gurus Talk Compliance: Episode 55 – The From Worse to Worser Edition
Balch’s Consumer Finance Compass: How Standing Can Make or Break Certification for Class Action Lawsuits in Debt Collection
Top challenges with Compliance Management
Sittenfeld v. United States – Campaign Contributions as Crimes?
From Banks to FinTech: The Evolution of Small Business Lending — The Consumer Finance Podcast
From Banks to FinTech: The Evolution of Small Business Lending — Payments Pros – The Payments Law Podcast
The Capital Ratio Podcast | Entering the US Banking Market
Daily Compliance News: July 7, 2025 the Disaster on the River Edition
At the beginning of July, SEC Chair Paul Atkins painted a picture: tokenization was the “next step” in the evolution of securities. Generally, tokenization entails creating a digital representation of a real-world asset —...more
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
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
On May 28, 2025, the Department of Labor (DOL) rescinded its 2022 guidance that cautioned retirement plan fiduciaries to exercise “extreme care” in permitting cryptocurrency and other digital asset investments in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
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
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
The most disappointing part of going to law school was the lack of practicality. Sure, it helps you think like a lawyer and teach you the basics of the law, it never helped with becoming a successful lawyer or how to draw a...more
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
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
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
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
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 “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
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
On September 6, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued Compliance Assistance Release No. 2024-01, titled “Cybersecurity Guidance Update.” The updated guidance clarifies that the DOL cybersecurity guidance applies to...more
In a defined benefit plan, participants usually accrue a monthly benefit based on a formula that typically considers their last three years’ salary before retirement and years of service with their employer. For example, the...more
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
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
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
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
Executive Summary - Many investment advisers and other financial institutions rely on the Department of Labor’s QPAM Exemption when providing services to, and transacting with, employer-sponsored retirement plans, individual...more
On April 23, 2024, the Department of Labor published its long-awaited final retirement security rule broadening the definition of who is an “investment advice fiduciary” under section 3(21) of the Employee Retirement Income...more
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
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
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