News & Analysis as of

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Department of Labor (DOL) Employee Benefits

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 (42):The Regulation and Exemptions are Stayed (2)—What Remains?

The DOL’s fiduciary regulation was scheduled to become effective this September 23. The exemptions were scheduled to become partially effective this September 23 and fully effective September 23, 2025....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

McAfee & Taft

Bitcoin ETFs and workplace retirement plans: DOL has ‘serious concerns’

McAfee & Taft on

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently approved applications from large investment firms to offer spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Retail investors can now buy bitcoin ETFs on traditional...more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

The New Fiduciary Rule (10): What is An Investment? (Part 2)

The U.S. Department of Labor has released its package of proposed changes to the regulation defining nondiscretionary fiduciary advice and to the exemptions for conflicts and compensation for investment recommendations to...more

Quarles & Brady LLP

2023 Year-End Employee Benefits Updates

Quarles & Brady LLP on

This newsletter provides updates employers should be aware of heading into 2024, including an outline of the updated 2024 retirement and welfare plan limits, instructions related to the “gag order” attestation requirements...more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

The SEC’s 2024 Examination Priorities: Impact on IRAs and Retirement Plans

The SEC Division of Examinations recently released its 2024 Examination Priorities (2024-exam-priorities.pdf (sec.gov)). While the Priorities cover a range issues, this article focuses on the Priorities that could impact...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Between A Rock and A Hard Place... ESG Investments in 401(k) Plan Line-Ups

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

Seyfarth Synopsis: The ever evolving landscape of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors and 401(k) plan investment options may have just become even more complicated....more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Best Interest Standard of Care for Advisors #91: Rollover Recommendations to Participants in Government Plans

The DOL’s expanded definition of fiduciary advice is described in the preamble to PTE 2020-02. The PTE then provides relief for conflicted non-discretionary recommendations (for example, rollover recommendations), if its...more

Snell & Wilmer

To the Moon After All? DOL Targets Cryptocurrency in Retirement Plans

Snell & Wilmer on

In Compliance Assistance Release No. 2022-01 (the “Release”), the Department of Labor (the “Department”) signaled its intention to scrutinize inclusion of cryptocurrency assets and crypto-derivative products as investments in...more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Department of Labor Issues New Guidance on Private Equity Investments in Individual Account Plans

On December 21, 2021, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued additional guidance on the use of private equity investments in certain retirement plans, warning that most plan fiduciaries will not have enough experience to...more

Morgan Lewis - ML Benefits

Department of Labor Teases Cryptocurrency Interest

Hinting that the US Department of Labor (DOL) is currently working on guidance related to cryptocurrency, the Acting Assistant Secretary for the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration recently commented that the DOL...more

Morgan Lewis

Target Date Funds: Facing Increasing Congressional, Regulatory, and Legal Scrutiny

Morgan Lewis on

In recent years, target retirement date funds (TDFs) have become a very popular investment option on participant-directed defined contribution plan investment lineups. But, as discussed in this LawFlash, as TDFs have grown in...more

Winstead PC

Plan Fiduciaries: You Have No Right to Vote

Winstead PC on

On December 11, 2020, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) issued a pre-publication version of its final regulations with respect to proxy voting in plans that are subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act...more

McDermott Will & Emery

DOL: Path for 401(k) Plans to Offer Private Equity Investment Options

McDermott Will & Emery on

The US Department of Labor (DOL) issued an information letter in June 2020 indicating that, in limited circumstances, it will allow defined contribution retirement plans (such as 401(k) plans) to indirectly invest in private...more

Groom Law Group, Chartered

DOL Proposes a New Fiduciary Investment Advice Exemption

On June 29, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) proposed a new exemption from the prohibited transaction provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”) in connection with the...more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Best Interest Standard of Care for Advisors #17

The SEC has issued its final Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI), Form CRS Regulation, RIA Interpretation and Solely Incidental Interpretation. I am discussing the SEC’s guidance in a series of articles entitled “Best Interest...more

Womble Bond Dickinson

Final Chapter for the DOL Fiduciary Rule

Womble Bond Dickinson on

It’s official. The Department of Labor’s controversial, Obama-era Fiduciary Rule is dead and gone. On June 21, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its mandate certifying its March 15 split decision...more

Carlton Fields

SEC Regulation Best Interest: Charting a Course for Securities and Annuity Sales

Carlton Fields on

In June, we circulated our fifth article on the continuing saga regarding the standard of conduct for sales of securities and annuities — and the efforts of federal and state regulators to impose new conditions on the...more

Mintz - Employment Viewpoints

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Invalidates the 2016 Final Department of Labor Fiduciary Rule and Related Prohibited Transaction...

What’s a financial advisor to do? On March 15, 2018, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Chamber of Commerce of the U.S. v. U.S. Dep’t. of Labor, No. 17-10238, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 6472 (5th Cir. Mar. 15, 2018) vacated –...more

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

The Future of the ERISA Fiduciary Rule

The future of the Department of Labor’s Fiduciary rule is in limbo following the Fifth Circuit’s decision striking it down “in toto.” The future of the Fiduciary rule is uncertain, particularly in light of the Fifth...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

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