Fiduciary Rules and Practices

Plan sponsors are often reluctant to take big steps in making plan changes — but a new participant survey finds that workers would welcome more aggressive defaults.According to a national survey conducted by American Century Investments: Eight out of 10 employees want at least a “slight nudge” from... READ MORE

Earlier this year I wrote a post about ERISA litigation going “off the rails.” Alas, it feels like we've gone from bad to worse since then. In the past week, a whole new round of lawsuits involving academic institution 403(b) plans has hit the news. Despite the “newness” of the targets (large... READ MORE

The law firm of Schlichter, Bogard & Denton has now turned its attention to the education sector, filing separate class action lawsuits against three universities on behalf of over 60,000 employees in their defined contribution retirement plans, both 401(k) and 403(b).According to a press... READ MORE

Retirement plan professionals of all stripes expect to have to adjust to the Department of Labor’s final fiduciary rule. But businesses are gearing up for more than the obvious adjustments they’ll need to make.A strong majority — to the tune of 75% — of retirement plan providers told the LIMRA... READ MORE

Every so often, a measure or a regulation comes along that is the legal equivalent of a river changing course. To Michael Kitces, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule is one of them, recently calling it a “watershed moment.” And that’s not all — Kitces considers it only the beginning.“I... READ MORE

Asserting its claim for summary judgement in the fiduciary rule litigation, one set of plaintiffs says that the Department of Labor (DOL) is counting on the sheer complexity of the issues to prevail in court. After taking the DOL to task for its lack of care in constructing the justification for... READ MORE

The plaintiffs in the first lawsuit filed challenging the Department of Labor (DOL’s) fiduciary regulation take an aggressive stance in their motion for summary judgment.The 52-page filing starts (once the table of contents and table of authorities are dispensed with) by calling out the DOL for its... READ MORE

The American Retirement Association (ARA) has partnered with Morningstar, Inc. to develop a program that sets a new standard in fiduciary education and best practices.The IRA Fiduciary Adviser education program is designed to prepare advisers for a continuously shifting regulatory environment. The... READ MORE

The Department of Labor (DOL) has made some “technical corrections” to the Best Interest Contract (BIC) Exemption of the fiduciary regulation. The DOL issued the corrections on July 7; it had published the BIC Exemption in the April 8, 2016 Federal Register.The DOL notes that all of the corrections... READ MORE