By Greg Daugherty and Rich Helmreich on But just how big of a win is it? The U.S. Supreme Court recently issued a unanimous decision in Hughes v. Northwestern University, reversing and remanding a lower court ruling that had dismissed the case against a retirement plan sponsor. This decision reaffirms that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act’s (ERISA) fiduciary duty of prudence … Continue Reading
By Greg Daugherty and Rich Helmreich on In what some commentators are describing as the latest volley in a game of regulatory ping-pong, the Department of Labor (DOL) published proposed regulations that would change the way an ERISA fiduciary should consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and related proxy voting decisions with respect to plan investments (the proposed regulations). The proposed … Continue Reading
By Rich Helmreich and Greg Daugherty on The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced new guidance for plan sponsors, fiduciaries, record keepers and participants on best practices for maintaining cyber security. This is the first time the DOL has issued such guidance, and it comes in response to a recent General Accounting Office (GAO) report responding to increased cybersecurity risks to retirement plan … Continue Reading
By Greg Daugherty on After years of revising regulations and even more years of legal battles, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) 2016 ERISA fiduciary regulations (the regulations) essentially end up right where they started. That is because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit issued its mandate officially vacating in toto the regulations, including the Best Interest … Continue Reading
By Greg Daugherty on While the fiduciary rule has received most of the attention in the world of ERISA as of late, a lesser known regulation that was finalized late last year also may require action by plan sponsors. This regulation , issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) in December 2016, requires applicable plans to satisfy additional procedural … Continue Reading
By Greg Daugherty on Much has been written to speculate what may become of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule. Recently, the DOL issued a FAQ confirming that the new fiduciary rule will become effective June 9, 2017. Transition exemptions that were previously announced also will go into effect on that date. The DOL also issued non-enforcement guidance … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Today (April 7, 2017), the Department of Labor (DOL) published in the Federal Register a final rule delaying the new ERISA fiduciary rule until June 9, 2017. Everyone expected a comprehensive 60-day delay to the rule, including the related Best Interest Contract Exemption (BICE) and other prohibited transaction exemptions (PTE). But, in welcome news to … Continue Reading
By Greg Daugherty and Porter Wright on While it took longer than many expected, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a proposed rule that would provide a 60-day delay to the application of the new fiduciary rule and related prohibited transaction exemptions. As we reported in our previous blog, the rule was set to impose new fiduciary obligations on those who provide … Continue Reading
By Greg Daugherty on In the plan sponsor and financial adviser community, as 2016 gives way to 2017, all eyes will be on the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule. As we blogged previously, the new rule will impose many new obligations on advisers, and plan sponsors also will have to be mindful of how these changes affect their … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on After a drawn out and controversial regulatory review process, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) on April 6, 2016, issued final guidance that expands the definition of a “fiduciary” under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code regarding persons or entities that render investment advice for compensation, received directly … Continue Reading
By Greg Daugherty on ERISA fiduciaries of employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) and plans with employer stock funds increasingly find themselves in a Catch-22. If they continue to invest in employer stock and the stock price falls, the fiduciaries could be sued for violating their duty of prudence. If they stop investing in employer stock and the price rises, the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The United States Supreme Court yesterday issued a unanimous opinion in Tibble et al. v. Edison International et al. vacating a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that claims by employees of Edison International against the company over allegedly imprudent 401(k) plan investments were time-barred under applicable ERISA statute of limitation rules. The issue before the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The United States Department of Labor (the “DOL”) submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (the “OMB”) a revised version of the “conflict of interest” rule expanding the definition of the term “fiduciary” on Monday, February 23, 2015. Generally, the OMB has up to 90 days to review rules, although review times can vary … Continue Reading
By Greg Daugherty on A recent Third Circuit decision (Santomenno v. John Hancock, et. al.) has been described as a win for service providers to ERISA plans. It certainly is important because this decision, along with other fairly recent decisions, helps to illustrate when service provider actions become significant enough to make them fiduciaries. A somewhat less discussed point, … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Section 110(a) of ERISA authorizes the Department of Labor (the “DOL”) to permit an alternative form of compliance with the reporting and disclosure obligations of Part 1 of Title I of ERISA for “top hat” plans (i.e., “unfunded” plans established for a select group of management or highly compensated employees). Under that authority, the DOL … Continue Reading
By Greg Daugherty and Porter Wright on If you’re a fan of the tv show “The Simpsons,” you might remember an early episode where Homer Simpson launched a crusade against every public safety issue in the city. The result was practically every square inch of the town contained signs alerting people to every dip, pothole, and other nuisance on the roads. After … Continue Reading
By Greg Daugherty on Our sister blog reported recently that the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) published final regulations that reform money market mutual funds (“MMFs”). The regulations provide for two core reforms: (1) “Institutional” MMFs, other than those invested primarily in government securities, are prohibited from using a stable net asset value (“NAV”), and (2) MMFs must … Continue Reading
By Deb Boiarsky on On Thursday, the Department of Labor issued a Field Assistance Bulletin updating its prior guidance on locating missing participants. As before, the guidance technically only applies in the context of terminating defined contribution plans, though the guidance can be instructive for fiduciaries trying to locate missing or unresponsive participants in other retirement plan contexts as well. A central reason … Continue Reading
By Deb Boiarsky on Coming on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dudenhoeffer decision, which eliminated a pro-fiduciary presumption with respect to company stock holdings in qualified retirement plans, the 4th Circuit issued a decision last week that could cause even more unrest for plan fiduciaries. The case, Tatum v. RJR Pension Investment Committee, et al., represents a potential elevation of … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on As we noted in a previous blog entry, the United States Supreme Court recently ruled in two companion cases, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Sebelius (referred to hereafter as Hobby Lobby) , that regulations issued under the Affordable Care Act (the “ACA”) that compel closely held corporations to provide contraception … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The Pennsylvania General Assembly has given us another opportunity to expand our employee benefit plan boundaries discussion. This time, the discussion applies to multiemployer plans in the construction industry. It has been reported that Rep. William Keller, D-Philadelphia, introduced a bill in the General Assembly to amend the state’s Mechanics’ Lien Law to classify union … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on As a follow up to our blog on the ERISA sponsor / fiduciary boundary dispute, here is another case, Coulter v. Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc., from the Second Circuit. The employer decided to make contributions in the form of company stock, rather than cash. Then the employer’s stock price plunged in conjunction with the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Plan administrators who fail to timely file Form 5500 annual returns/reports are subject to penalties under both Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) and the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”). The Department of Labor (the “DOL”) has the authority to assess civil penalties of up to $1,100 per day … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Settlement agreements are fairly common in the ERISA / employee benefits area. We typically do not need “unique” provisions for these agreements, beyond making sure all the proper parties are named and that ERISA is referenced. But two issues typically require extra attention: confidentiality provisions, and payment method (including tax withholding and reporting). As discussed in our sister blog, a party might quietly violate a confidentiality provision, and get away with it without causing any real harm.… Continue Reading
