Fiduciary Rules and Practices

Plan committees serve an important role, helping plan sponsors provide benefits, as well as protecting the plan and plan sponsor. In MarketBeat, John Iekel discusses a recent blog entry that offers tips on how a plan committee can best perform its duties. READ MORE

The Department of Labor (DOL) wants everyone to be attentive to cybersecurity protocols as a fiduciary responsibility, but there’s a higher expectation for those “running the systems.” Tim Hauser, Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Office Operations at the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security... READ MORE

Cautioning those looking to “game the system,” a senior Labor Department official affirmed July 27 that suggesting investments that could occur after a rollover is tantamount to recommending the rollover, and if it meets the rest of the five-part test will constitute fiduciary advice regardless of... READ MORE

While Hughes involves 403(b) plans, the issues in it are effectively identical to those in the 401(k) fee litigation that has plagued our industry for nearly two decades. On July 2, 2021, the Supreme Court agreed to review Seventh Circuit’s decision affirming dismissal of plaintiffs’ case for... READ MORE

On July 16 the IRS released Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc.) 2021-30, and with it a series of updates that plan sponsors and those working to correct plan failures will find of interest, including two new benefit overpayment correction methods. The IRS noted that the two new overpayment correction... READ MORE

The nation’s highest court has agreed to hear a case that the law firm of Schlichter Bogard & Denton says is having a “chilling effect” on excessive fee litigation. The district court ruled in favor of the plan fiduciary defendants in March 2018, and the appellate court affirmed that decision... READ MORE

The Treasury Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission offered a look at their regulatory priorities for the coming months on June 11, including proposals in the pre-rule and final stages.   For the Treasury Department, this semiannual regulatory to-do list was the first offered under... READ MORE

The Department of Labor’s (DOL) newly released Spring 2021 regulatory agenda confirms that a fiduciary rule rewrite is in the works and provides other key insight for the department’s regulatory plans for the coming months.   Fiduciary Rule Recast The 10-year saga of the fiduciary rule will... READ MORE

One of the most active ERISA litigation firms has now turned its attention to a mammoth 403(b) plan. The suit (Garnick v. Wake Forest Univ. Baptist Med. Ctr., M.D.N.C., No. 1:21-cv-00454, complaint 6/4/21) was filed in the in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina by... READ MORE