On April 14, 2015 the Employee Benefits Security Administration unveiled its proposal to re-define who is rendered a “fiduciary” of an employee benefit plan under ERISA by providing investment advice to a plan or its participants or beneficiaries. According to the proposal’s preamble, the revised regulations would treat those who provide investment advice or recommendations to an employee benefit plan, plan fiduciary, plan participant or beneficiary, IRA, or IRA owner as fiduciaries under ERISA “in a wider array of advice relationships than the existing ERISA and [Internal Revenue] Code regulations, which would be replaced.”
Articles Discussing Fiduciary Duty Under ERISA
White House and DOL Begin Revised Fiduciary Rule Marketing Campaign
On Monday, the White House and the Department of Labor publicized efforts to target conflicts of interest in managing employee retirement funds. In essence, the Administration is promoting the DOL’s much–beleaguered proposal to more broadly define who constitutes a “fiduciary” for the purposes of rendering investment advice under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). According to a White House fact sheet, the DOL will issue its proposed fiduciary rule in the coming months. Notably, the agency withdrew its initial fiduciary rule in 2011 after the proposal faced significant opposition from the employer community.