Advertisement
Fiduciary Governance
The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) issued guidance April 14 on maintaining cybersecurity, including tips on protecting retirement benefits. The guidance has a wide target audience—the DOL intends it for plan sponsors, plan fiduciaries, record keepers,...
READ MORE
This case is the latest volley in a nationwide barrage of lawsuits—many brought by interim lead class counsel in this case—targeting retirement plan fiduciaries for allegedly paying too much to plan service providers.
This time, the target is the Pentegra Defined Contribution Plan for Financial...
READ MORE
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration has issued guidance on fiduciary investment advice for retirement investors, employee benefit plans and investment advice providers.
The guidance relates to the department’s “Improving Investment Advice for Workers &...
READ MORE
The Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule still generates discussion. That’s staying power—it was first proposed more than a decade ago. A March 31 NTSA webcast took a look at the rule and current developments involving it.
In “How the Fiduciary Rule Affects Advisors and Other Retirement...
READ MORE
Another federal court has weighed in on the status of participant data as a plan asset.
The issue arose most recently last January in an excessive fee suit brought by the St. Louis-based law firm of Schlichter, Bogard & Denton on behalf of four participant-plaintiffs in Shell Oil Co.'s $10.5...
READ MORE
The IRS’ Voluntary Correction Program (VCP) provides a means by which filers can correct errors before they are told to do so, but the good intentions entailed in using it do not guarantee that there will not be errors in the filings intended to correct mistakes. The IRS has outlined the top...
READ MORE
On March 2, 2021, Microsoft reported that it has observed targeted attacks that take advantage of four zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server to gain full access to all email on the victim’s system. What should you be doing?
A recent Alert from Lockton’s Global Cyber &...
READ MORE
A new excessive fee suit is long on explanations and short on allegations, but makes some familiar arguments from a relative newcomer to ERISA litigation.
This particular suit (Mator v. Wesco Distrib., Inc., W.D. Pa., No. 2:21-cv-00403, complaint 3/26/21) was filed on behalf of current...
READ MORE
Single-employer defined benefit plan interest rate stabilization and funding relief included in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) presents DB sponsors with a number of short-run decisions—some that must be made by March 31.
A recent article by OctoberThree highlights some of the issues...
READ MORE
The ink on the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), signed on March 11, is barely dry—but its effects are, and will be, far-reaching. Two recent blog entries zero in on some of the ways it will affect private-sector defined benefit plans, including funding relief.
Discount Rates
Pre-ARPA,...
READ MORE
Just three weeks before a trial date, a class action lawsuit with a “long litigation history” has settled for just under $10 million—along with a cut for plaintiffs’ attorneys “slightly above the presumptively reasonable fee of 25%...”
The settlement—which will wind up covering some 17,000...
READ MORE
A group of Senate Republicans is unhappy with the Department of Labor’s announcement regarding its enforcement position on the final ESG and proxy voting rules.
In a March 18 letter to Al Stewart, Acting Secretary of the Department of Labor, Republican Senators Richard Burr (NC), Mike Crapo (ID)...
READ MORE
The Senate has confirmed Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to lead the Department of Labor.
Walsh was confirmed by the Senate March 22 by a vote of 68-29. He is the last of Biden’s cabinet nominees to be confirmed.
Walsh, a former union leader, has been serving as Mayor of Boston since 2014. Previously...
READ MORE
Proliferation of technological applications and the need to increase retirement plan participation and savings. Seems like a match made in heaven. A panel of experts recently discussed how that pairing is faring and how it can function better.
In “Better Technology, Better Retirement Savings:...
READ MORE
It’s often said that “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Of course, it’s also said that doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. So, how might that apply in a fiduciary suit?
As it turns out, in a recent case three participant-plaintiffs...
READ MORE
The law firm of Capozzi Adler, P.C. has found another 401(k) plan to sue—and this one’s a multiple employer plan.
And while the plan in question was a multiple employer plan[1]—that seemed largely incidental to the allegations made.
The plan—more specifically the plan fiduciaries—targeted are...
READ MORE
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has added its voice to those that highlight the critical importance of cybersecurity, but they go one better. In a new report, they call on the Department of Labor (DOL) to set minimum standards for mitigating cybersecurity risks and to formally state...
READ MORE
Did you ever think that four tiny little provisions in one little bill could cause so much confusion in the retirement plan industry? Did you ever think that one bill could cause you to spend enough time on webinars to complete your continuing education credits not only for this year, but also for...
READ MORE
The new edition of the 401k Averages Book reveals that 401(k) total plan costs declined for both small and large retirement plans, with investment fees leading the decline, though smaller plans are still paying slightly more in fees.
According to the 21st edition of the book, the average total...
READ MORE
One of the largest 401(k) excessive fee suit settlements—$39.8 million—has been approved.
The settlement arose in a case involving Reliance Trust and its role regarding the Insperity 401(k) Plan, in which the plaintiffs—represented by the law firm of Schlichter Bogard & Denton—were enrolled....
READ MORE