ERISA
What Advice Would The Founding Fathers Give On Saving For Retirement?
The retirement system itself has undergone a revolution. The Congress that oversees retirement policy today would have been unrecognizable to the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. ERISA, enacted in 1974, created a comprehensive fiduciary framework that would have been unimaginable to Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, or Hamilton.
Decumulation Strategies Create New Fiduciary Questions For 401k Plan Sponsors
The reality is that many retirement planning decisions already require participants to evaluate concepts they may not fully understand. That reality raises an important question. Should a plan exclude a potentially beneficial option simply because some participants may find it difficult to understand?
Advisor Shortage Risk Creates New Challenges For 401k Plan Sponsors
Who will attend meetings? Who will prepare reports? Who will respond to participant questions? Who will provide investment recommendations? Who ultimately bears fiduciary responsibility?
Will Cybersecurity Enforcement Change What Fiduciaries Must Protect?
That does not necessarily mean fiduciaries should expect a wave of new regulations. Existing direction may already point fiduciaries toward the safeguards regulators expect them to implement.
What The Dot-Com Crash Still Teaches 401k Fiduciaries About The AI Stock Craze
ERISA does not require fiduciaries to predict market tops. It does, however, require a prudent process for selecting and monitoring investments.
If Participants Don’t Understand It, Should It Be In Your 401k Plan?
Fiduciaries can follow every step of a prudent process and still end up with outcomes they did not anticipate. That’s not how fiduciary risk is supposed to work. Or at least, not how it used to work.
401k Designated Investment Alternatives Demand Fiduciary Discipline
Private equity inside a daily-valued, participant-directed plan introduces structural tension. Illiquid assets must coexist with participant liquidity expectations. Valuations must be estimated where markets do not exist. And governance must bridge that gap without introducing bias or delay.
401k Fiduciary Rule Limbo Exposes Plan Sponsor Risk
The 401k Fiduciary Rule limbo is here. The regulation is gone. The risk is not. With the formal vacating of the 2024 “Retirement Security Rule” effective April 20, 2026, plan sponsors are once again operating without clear regulatory direction. The expected replacement rule has not yet arrived. Committees are left navigating a familiar but uncomfortable […] Read Full Article
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