Fiduciary Governance

Plan documents, and compliance with the rules and regulations governing them, can be complicated and are always important. An industry expert in a recent ASPPA webinar outlined what can be done if one has made an error with one.  John P. Griffin, JD, LLM Principal at the ASC Institute, reminds... READ MORE

July can be depended upon to bring some heat to the United States, and 2022 did not disappoint—and that included private-sector pension plans, according to recently released figures.  Funded Status July brought good news according to October Three, which tracks two hypothetical pension plans—one... READ MORE

A $5.1 million settlement of a suit involving excessive fee allegations regarding a $15 billion plan with a settlement structure has been approved by the court. The History Back in June 2020, the $15 billion Costco 401(k) plan was sued in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of... READ MORE

As new rules about rollover disclosures kick in, a new report highlights an often unacknowledged risk of rollovers—high(er) fees. That’s right—a new report from Pew Trusts seems to have stirred up a new awareness of that issue—all this attention just as PTE 2020-02 brings the written requirement... READ MORE

After nearly a year of negotiations (though that’s a pretty short turnaound by some measures), the parties in an excessive fee suit have asked for the court’s approval on a settlement agreement struck by the parties. The plan in question—more specifically the plan fiduciaries—involved are those of... READ MORE

Eleanor Shellstrop has operated her fledgling business, The Good Place, for about seven years now. She established a 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan somewhere around Year 2 at the recommendation of her CPA. The CPA set up the plan for her with a bundled service provider. Whatever the CPA put on the... READ MORE

Continuing their two-decade decline, the average expense ratio paid by fund investors fell again last year, Morningstar’s annual U.S. Fund Fee Study reports.    The study, which evaluates trends in the cost of U.S. open-end mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), found that the asset-... READ MORE

Broker-dealers and advisors doing business in the Silver State will want to pay attention to newly proposed regulations defining the state’s fiduciary standard, as well as broader changes to practices and procedures.   Efforts by Nevada regulators to implement guidance defining the state’s... READ MORE

The Labor Department is pushing back against litigation challenging specific elements of its FAQs regarding the fiduciary rule. The suit (Am. Sec. Ass’n v. U.S. Dep’t of Labor, M.D. Fla., No. 8:22-cv-00330, complaint filed 2/9/22) was one of two filed earlier this year challenging the DOL’s... READ MORE