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Fiduciary Governance
Fresh from the heels of the red state lawsuit filing to prevent the Department of Labor from implementing its new rule related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, two members of Congress announced they’ll reintroduce a Congressional Review Act (CRA) measure to nullify its use...
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There are few things more disruptive to the peace or clarity of a 401(k) plan than a switch in recordkeepers.
Let’s face it — change — even change for the better — is frequently disruptive to the human psyche. Most of us tend to drift into comfortable “ruts” of pattern, or perhaps habit — places...
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Enactment of the SECURE 2.0 Act, ongoing industry innovations, and the aim to provide greater personalization are among the many opportunities that plan sponsors have to align DC plan features, practices and investments with participant needs.
Indeed, the need for greater personalization of the...
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Yet another 401(k) excessive fee suit has been dismissed for failing to allege a “plausible” claim of injury.
The most recent—a suit filed against Fluor Corp.’s 401(k) a little more than a year ago by former participants Deborah Locascio and David Summers. Represented by Miller Shah LLP and...
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Mere days before the Labor Department’s ESG regulation is set to go into effect, a coalition of 24 states has filed suit to stop it.
More specifically, the coalition, led by Texas Attorney General Paxton, says in a press release that the 2022 Rule “undermines key protections for retirement savings...
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Just four years after striking an excessive fee settlement, a fund company has been sued again — for allegedly not making the changes to its 401(k) lineup the settlement contemplated.
The defendants in the case are Allianz Asset Management of America, and the (new) participant-plaintiffs are Chad...
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Efforts by proponents to carve out an exemption to a Nevada state fiduciary law for ERISA-covered retirement plan advisors continued this week, with the American Retirement Association (ARA) submitting a letter supporting the exemption.
Nevada State Senate Bill 383 (SB 383), effective July 1,...
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A new survey that polled retirement plan sponsors, financial advisors and plan participants finds little appetite among plan participants to invest their retirement assets in cryptocurrency.
In polling 558 plan participants about their preferred retirement asset options for 2023, Ubiquity...
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Another suit filed by Capozzi Adler has failed to get past a plan fiduciaries’ motion to dismiss.
The suit — filed in October 2021 by Rupinder Singh, Jeffrey S. Popkin, Joni Walker and Jenny Mark on behalf of the Deloitte 401(k) Plan, and the Deloitte Profit Sharing Plan with the 401(K) Plan and...
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New year, new duties? A Missouri senator has introduced legislation that would modify the duties of fiduciaries serving public employee retirement systems.
Sen. Jill Carter (R-Jasper and Newton) on Jan. 4 introduced the bill, SB 436. It provides that an investment fiduciary would discharge his or...
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A new suit — with a plaintiff represented by a new (but suddenly active) law firm claims to be “another example of a large plan filling its 401(k) plan with (1) lower yielding, expensive investments when identical, cheaper classes were available at the time of selections/retentions, while (2)...
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It is a growing club that no one wants to join: the club of companies who became victims of cyberterrorism. Whether the release of credit card data from the infamous Target inside job, the gas pipeline shutdown at Colonial Pipeline, or the more recent CNA Financial ransom attack, it is often not a...
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A recently unveiled settlement in a 401(k) excessive fee suit has hit a snag.
In fairness, the announced settlement was only a “partial” settlement—one that plaintiffs Wendy Berry, Lorri Hulings, and Kathleen Sammons announced with regard to claims against Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting, Inc. as...
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Loaded up with a fresh set of plaintiffs, a familiar plaintiffs’ attorney is having yet another “go” at plan fiduciaries in an excessive fee suit.
The law firm in question is none other than Capozzi Adler PC[1] (and Johnson Fistel LLP), which filed a similar (identical?) suit against this same...
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A $4 billion plan has struck a $4 million settlement—and “meaningful prospective relief” — in a suit that challenged the fees it paid itself as recordkeeper for its own plan.
Plaintiffs Chris Carrigan, Michael Venti, and Sylvain Yelle (represented by Nichols Kaster PLLP[1] and Garrison, Levin-...
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After over four years of hard-fought litigation, the parties in a suit involving fund menu construction have come to a partial settlement.
By partial, we mean that plaintiffs Wendy Berry, Lorri Hulings, and Kathleen Sammons have come to terms with Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting, Inc. as part of...
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The newest digital edition of ASPPA’s members-only magazine has been posted online!
Several long-term trends are making the need for retirement planning more acute and the involvement of retirement professionals much more important. In this issue’s cover story, John Iekel takes a closer look. In...
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A participant suit targeting TIAA for its loan practices in retirement plans has come up short in identifying a potential class on whose behalf to bring suit.
The suit—filed back in early 2017 (Haley v. Teachers Inv. & Annuity Assoc., S.D.N.Y., No. 1:17-cv-00855, complaint filed 2/3/17)—was...
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The Department of Labor (DOL) on Dec. 12 reported that its Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) recovered more than $1.4 billion for employee benefit plans, participants, and beneficiaries in fiscal year 2022. And that includes more than half a billion dollars that EBSA recovered for...
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ESG is a broad, sweeping construct, and in its most comprehensive form touches on a wide variety of elements essential to corporate governance, sustainability, and returns. But there are skeptics, if not to the efficacy of the focus, to its impact on portfolios.
While individuals come to this...
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