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Nevin Adams

It’s said that reasonable minds can differ — and that turns out to be the case in another university 401(k) suit. The plaintiffs in this case are five employees of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and participants in the MIT Supplemental 401(k) Plan. The suit — filed a little more than... READ MORE
Citing the rulings in a number of other university 403(b) suits, a federal district court has weighed in on the issues in a case involving Johns Hopkins University.The suit, brought against the plan fiduciaries of Johns Hopkins’ $4.3 billion plan (as of 2014) a little more than a year ago by the... READ MORE
An excessive fee suit that had challenged the number of funds on the menu, the use of multiple recordkeepers, and the embrace of asset-based, rather than per-participant fees (among other things) has been dismissed.The suit, brought by participants in the $3.8 billion University of Pennsylvania... READ MORE
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) says that, “Contrary to the alarmist claims of their lobbyists and the conclusions of opaque industry-funded studies,” financial firms are “fully ready” to comply with the fiduciary rule — and you don’t need to take her word for it.Warren, an early and enthusiastic... READ MORE
The Labor Department says it won’t enforce a provision of the fiduciary rule’s arbitration ban.The stance, published Aug. 30 in Field Assistance Bulletin 2017-03, was first revealed in a brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in Chamber of Commerce v. Acosta, where the Labor... READ MORE
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has made a quick response to the Labor Department’s request for a delay in the full BIC applicability date.In an update posted on the OMB site on August 28, the concluded action is noted as “Consistent With Change.” The OMB review, which frequently takes as... READ MORE
In a written response to a judge in litigation involving the fiduciary rule’s anti-arbitration provision, the Labor Department says the provision will “likely be mooted in the near future.”The letter (Thrivent Fin. for Lutherans v. Acosta, D. Minn., No. 0:16-cv-03289-SRN-DTS, letter to judge filed... READ MORE
A new excessive fee suit claims that plan fiduciaries “abdicated” their responsibilities, allowing the plans’ trustee to “…to load the Plans with high-cost mutual funds.”The most recent excessive fee suit involves both the 401(k) and 403(b) plans of Allina Health System, which have nearly $2.3... READ MORE
The American Retirement Association has filed a comment letter raising concerns about the application of a new fiduciary regulation in the state of Nevada.The comment letter includes a legal analysis conducted by the law firm of Trucker Huss that concludes that courts would find that the Nevada... READ MORE
A group that generally advocates for large, multistate employers has issues with a new fiduciary law in Nevada that it says would have a negative impact on small employers.In a comment letter to Diana Foley, Securities Administrator, Securities Division, at the Nevada Office of the Secretary of the... READ MORE
The Labor Department has submitted a proposal to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to extend the transition period and full BIC applicability date of the fiduciary regulation. The notice – which indicates that the Labor Department intends to push back to July 1, 2019 the full Best Interest... READ MORE
Ascensus, already tapped to administer the OregonSaves state-run IRA program, has landed another client.The Dresher, Pennsylvania-based provider announced last week that it had been chosen as Illinois’ preferred partner for its Secure Choice program following a public-bidding process. According to... READ MORE
The Labor Department has filed for a stay of proceedings in litigation challenging the fiduciary regulation.“Here, a stay of proceedings would be the most efficient use of judicial resources,” the Labor Department noted, going on to state that the plaintiff in the case (Thrivent Financial for... READ MORE
In a July 18 letter responding to the Labor Department’s request for information (RFI) on its fiduciary regulation, the American Retirement Association (ARA) has requested an extension of the applicability date — and a streamlined levelized fee exemption.Level ‘Better’The ARA had authored — and... READ MORE
The good news is that the funding level of that critical financial underpinning of the nation’s retirement security didn’t decrease during the past year.On the other hand — and the bad news in the report from the Social Security Board of Trustees — is that the combined asset reserves of the Old-Age... READ MORE
Another “mega” university 403(b) plan finds itself in the excessive fee crosshairs of a participant-plaintiff suit. The latest is a suit (Short v. Brown Univ., D.R.I., No. 1:17-cv-00318, complaint filed 7/6/17) brought by three participants individually and as representatives of a class of... READ MORE
The Department of Labor (DOL) may be reviewing the impact of the fiduciary rule, but they’d still like the court to dismiss challenges to it. On July 3, the DOL urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to (mostly) uphold the fiduciary regulation, saying that the plaintiffs in the case... READ MORE
The comment period on the fiduciary rule request for information (RFI) is short — and it started July 6.The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) announced that it would publish its request for information on the fiduciary rule in the Federal Register on... READ MORE
The Department of Labor (DOL) has issued its request for comments on a potential delay in the Jan. 1, 2018, applicability date of certain provisions of the fiduciary regulation — but it’s a short window.Specifically, the Request for Information (RFI) — which had been submitted to the Office of... READ MORE
There’s an old regulation that has new meaning under the new fiduciary regulation — and it could catch new fiduciaries, as well as broker-dealers — by surprise.That “old” regulation is the 408(b)(2) regulation which, beginning in 2012, required that service providers to ERISA-governed retirement... READ MORE

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