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Fiduciary Governance
A court challenge to a corporate pension de-risking move has been rejected by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.The lawsuit was filed by a number of Verizon retirees who took issue with a 2012 move by their former employer to annuitize the benefits of current retirees by purchasing annuities...
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The IRS has issued temporary regulations providing guidance on administering a vote by multiemployer plan participants regarding suspension of benefits when such a plan is determined to be in critical and declining status.The temporary regulations (designated TD 9735) apply as of June 17, 2015, and...
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There were four days of hearings on the Department of Labor’s proposed fiduciary rule and I kept waiting… and watching… and waiting. But it never came up. And that surprised me.You see, I was fully expecting someone to ask these two questions: “What about individuals who actually want to be...
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The Department of Labor (DOL) stands ready to assist state governments when they work to establish public retirement plans for private-sector workers, regardless of whether those plans are covered by ERISA, according to EBSA chief Phyllis Borzi.The White House set the tone with President Obama’s...
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Renowned French author André Gide once famously remarked, “Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” So it felt at times during Day Four of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) public hearing on its fiduciary rule.To be fair,...
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Fixed-income allocations by corporate pension plans are growing, a shift that is coming at the expense of equity allocations. The allocations are now close to parity, say recent reports.According to Pensions & Investments online, Standard & Poor’s says that private-sector pension plans’...
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Responding to a bipartisan (though primarily Republican) letter from more than a dozen members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez says his agency will “move forward towards issuing a Final Rule” on the agency’s “conflict of interest” proposal.In a letter addressed to...
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Marcy Supovitz, President-Elect of the American Retirement Association, testified at the public hearing on the Department of Labor’s reproposed fiduciary rule Aug. 12.Supovitz' testimony concentrated on the American Retirement Association’s innovative proposal to create a separate, streamlined...
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The second day of public hearings on the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule reproposal was highlighted by a debate over the economic impact that the rule will have on the financial services industry.When a rule of this significance is issued, it must be accompanied by an analysis from the...
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The first day of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) public hearing on its re-proposed fiduciary rule Aug. 10 veered from the informative to the absurd as the department’s rule makers heard from a broad array of stakeholders on the complex subject.Labor Secretary Thomas Perez has repeatedly promised to...
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The public comment period may have closed, but a group of U.S. Senators has weighed in on the proposed fiduciary regs — and lent their support to a recommendation of the American Retirement Association.The letter, signed by Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (Ore.), as well as fellow...
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The public comment period may have closed, but a group of U.S. Senators has weighed in on the proposed fiduciary regs — and lent their support to a recommendation of the American Retirement Association.The letter, signed by Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (Ore.), as well as fellow...
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Among the more than 800 comment letters filed on the Labor Department’s fiduciary proposal is one from a fellow federal agency that claims the proposal fails to adequately estimate its cost or the number of firms affected by it.The filing by the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy...
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Expressing concerns that the Labor Department’s fiduciary proposal is “…motivated by an insatiable desire to reengineer the retirement services industry and control the mode and manner that Americans save for retirement,” a group of Republican congressmen is calling on the DOL to withdraw the rule....
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Taking a cue from the boss, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez has said that the DOL will issue guidance to help facilitate state-based retirement plans. Perez made his remarks on the DOL blog.As President Obama did on July 13, Perez hailed state-based plans as a tool to strengthen retirement and noted...
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The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) says that the Labor Department’s fiduciary proposal represents a “fractured approach” that will sow confusion for many in the retirement industry.In a comment letter regarding the Labor Department proposal, FINRA says that a best interest standard...
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The Pushmi-Pullyu, a two-headed animal character from author Hugh Lofting’s Doctor Dolittle series of children’s books, does not actually exist. But the back-and-forth over the Department of Labor’s proposed fiduciary rule is enough to make one wonder if maybe they really do after all.July 21...
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The Department of Labor (DOL) will be changing its proposed fiduciary rule regarding brokers, DOL Deputy Assistant Secretary Timothy D. Hauser said on July 16. Hauser made his remarks at a Washington, D.C. meeting of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee.Hauser told...
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“Have we got a crisis, or merely a series of hard problems?” That question, posed by American Enterprise Institute Resident Fellow Alex Pollock at a July 15 discussion at AEI’s Washington, DC offices, captured the ultimate issue the expert panel addressed.Charles Ellis, founder of Greenwich...
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Diamonds may be forever, but apparently fiduciary liability for choosing annuities in a DC plan is not.That’s likely the most significant takeaway for advisors and plan sponsors from Field Assistance Bulletin (FAB) 2015-02. In that document, acknowledging that “confusion or lack of clarity” about...
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