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Fiduciary Governance
A pair of Republican senators have pushed back on “troubling statements by the companies that manage federal employees’ retirement investments suggesting those asset managers are not putting federal employees’ retirement security first.”
In a June 30 letter to David Jones, Acting Chairman of the...
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A new report reveals that more employees and plan sponsors are seeing increased value in retirement and other benefits.
Results from Sequoia Consulting Group’s 2021 Employee Experience Benchmarking Report (registration required) show that the pandemic had little effect on retirement plan...
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An excessive fee suit filed by a litigator new to the ERISA space makes a series of new, sweeping allegations (including the plan’s advisor and auditor) alongside some familiar challenges.
Indeed the plaintiffs’ arguments—if as yet unproven—are extraordinarily detailed, and tread ground(s) not...
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Thinking about engaging a 3(21) or a 3(38) fiduciary? A new podcast by CAPTRUST discusses some of the key distinctions in terms of the risks and responsibilities.
In the latest episode of “Revamping Retirement,” Jennifer Doss, Senior Director and Defined Contribution Practice Leader, along with...
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After a split decision on the merits—and a $3.1 million settlement—the plaintiffs’ attorneys asked for a fee of $5.4 million. Guess what the judge allowed?
In the case at hand—Ramos v. Banner Health—the plaintiffs (represented by Schlichter Bogard & Denton LLP) just last month lost their...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on July 9 announced that it has issued an interim final rule implementing a new Special Financial Assistance (SFA) Program for financially troubled multiemployer pension plans. The IRS on the same day issued guidance for multiemployer plans that...
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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...
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Transamerica has now settled another suit brought by participants who had alleged a breach of fiduciary duty in retaining proprietary funds in its own 401(k).
Specifically, in a suit filed by participant-plaintiffs Jeremy Karg, Matthew R. LaMarche and Shirley Rhodes (individually and as...
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Communicating with participants is, well, required. But more than that, it’s central to helping participants make the most of their participation in a plan. An industry insider argues that an approach that is clear and presents information in a way that makes it real and actionable is best.
Back...
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The who, what, when and how many of retirement plan committees, as well as some best practices.
It’s been said that a committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours, but advisors know they are an essential element in assuring prudent retirement plan operation and administration. In...
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The plaintiffs—who won at least a partial victory in an excessive fee case—but came up short on damages—appealed that decision—and lost again. Oh, and guess who their persistent lawyers were?
In a Nutshell
In an appeal with regard to the decisions in favor of the fiduciary defendants (and their...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) in its spring regulatory agenda enumerates a variety of proposals and actions close to implementation that will address benefits payments, assistance, valuation assessments, penalties and more.
Proposals
The following proposed rules are on the PBGC...
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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...
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Two bills have been introduced in the U.S. Senate designed to help Americans keep—and have more control over—their retirement savings.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) introduced the Keeping Your Retirement Act and the Increasing Retirement Amount Act on June 7.
The Keeping Your Retirement Act would...
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Another proprietary fund suit has been settled—for money, and procedural changes in plan administration.
The defendant in this case is John Hancock, which was sued by plaintiff Jennifer Baker, a participant in the John Hancock plan from 2014 until 2019. That suit, filed just ahead of the COVID-19...
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The terms of an excessive fee settlement have come to light—and there’s a (relatively) unique twist.
The suit was filed nearly two years ago against the plan fiduciaries of the $5.2 billion Lowe’s 401(k) plan and Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting, Inc. (which served as the plan’s fiduciary...
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Editor’s Note: This is the fifth in a series about the guidance the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) issued on April 14 concerning cybersecurity. The first is here; the second is here; the third is here; the fourth is here.
The Department of Labor’s Employee...
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Benchmarking investment fees is an important function. In fact, it’s more than that—it’s critical to fulfilling fiduciary duty. But “essential” does not translate to “easy,” and there are some common pitfalls in performing that function.
In the CAPTRUST blog entry “Understanding and Evaluating...
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A plan fiduciary—and their outsourced investment consultant—are being sued for a “self-serving” fund swap that is alleged to have cost participants more than $100 million to date.
This time it’s plaintiff Maggie Thomson[1] (on behalf of some 42,000 participants in the $1.4 billion Caesars...
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A new excessive fee suit—one with some familiar themes, but also some unique arguments—claims that plan fiduciaries used participants as a “captive investor base to effectuate…self-serving business strategies that ran counter to the Participants’ interests.”
In a Nutshell
(Another) group of...
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