Benefits - Fiduciary

Proposed Rule Seeks to Clarify Fiduciary Duties in Investment Plan Decisions Subject to ERISA, but Risks Remain The Department of Labor (DOL) recently released proposed regulations regarding the investment of assets of an employee benefit plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act

What has changed with the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) final regulations and certain prohibited transaction exemptions (PTEs)? Is it really that bad even for plan sponsors, as we hear from the many critics of the DOL’s newest definition of a fiduciary? It may or may not be, depending in

As a follow up to Heather Panick’s article below, please see my recent article in Bloomberg BNA Pension and Benefits Daily – Thorne Article

On June 5, 2017, in Pioneer Centres Holding Co. Employee Stock Ownership Plan & Trust v. Alerus Fin., N.A., Case No. 15-1227, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that the plaintiff bears the burden on each element of its breach of fiduciary duty claim under ERISA.

On June 5, 2017, in a split decision to be published, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that the plaintiff bears the burden on each element of its Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) claim for breach of fiduciary duty, including causation and damages. Pioneer

The applicability date for the long-awaited, much-debated Fiduciary Rule (see prior Jackson Lewis coverage here) is now upon us. So what does it mean?

United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) Secretary Alexander Acosta recently announced that the final DOL fiduciary regulations (the “Fiduciary Rule”) will go into effect on June 9, 2017. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Secretary Acosta noted that the current version of the Fiduciary Rule “

On October 27, the DOL published guidance on the new prohibited transaction exemptions (“PTEs”) issued under the DOL’s rule redefining “fiduciary” in the context of providing investment advice (See “Guidance,” here).

Financial Advisers and retail financial services firms face a number of challenges in dealing with the new fiduciary rule the Department of Labor announced this spring. But little did they know that they may confront the issues from their first contact with a potential client. That’s right—even befo

In early April, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a final rule to re-define who is rendered a "fiduciary" of an employee benefit plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by providing investment advice to a plan or its participants or beneficiaries. More than five years in th

The Department of Labor recently announced its new Fiduciary Rule – aka the “conflicts of interest rule.” This new rule expands the definition of fiduciary and alters how investment advice is delivered in retirement accounts. It won’t go into effect for at least another year, but it’s not too early

The Department of Labor has issued its much-anticipated final rule (the “Rule”) concerning the expanded definition of who is considered a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, as amended (“ERISA”), and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), as well as cert

In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court in Tibble v. Edison International held that plan fiduciaries owe an ongoing duty to review plan investments periodically to ensure compliance with their obligations under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). In doing so, the Court rever

On April 14, 2015, the Department of Labor (DOL) released a proposal to re-define who is rendered a "fiduciary" of an employee benefit plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by providing investment advice to a plan or its participants or beneficiaries. In a press release, Lab

On April 14, 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) reissued the long-awaited re-proposal of its regulation expanding the definition of "fiduciary" under the Employee Retirement Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA), and prescribing stricter conflict-of-interest rules that will apply to relatio

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 re

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 re