ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code prohibit fiduciaries who provide investment advice to plan participants and IRAs from receiving compensation that varies based on their investment advice and compensation that is paid to the fiduciaries by third parties. During the last few Presidential administrations, the Republican and Democratic parties have taken turns overturning the other […]
As explained in the August 2025 edition of The Speed Reader, on August 7, 2025 President Trump issued Executive Order 14330 (the “EO”) to broaden the scope of permissible investment options in employer-sponsored defined contribution plans. The EO stated that many Americans in those plans lack access to the potential growth and diversification that alternative […]
Given the continuing wave of ERISA litigation, this article has become a mainstay of The Speed Reader. The most common type of ERISA case involves retirement plan participants’ allegations that plan fiduciaries caused participants to pay excessive recordkeeping and investment fees and included one or more poorly-performing investment options in the plan. Recent cases in […]
Worker classification is a critical area of the law, in part because the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) does not require employers to pay an independent contractor the minimum wage or overtime pay, or to keep records of an independent contractor’s activities. Also, as discussed below, this area of the law can have significant impacts […]
Given the continuing wave of ERISA litigation, this article has become a mainstay of The Speed Reader. The most common type of ERISA case involves retirement plan participants’ allegations that plan fiduciaries caused participants to pay excessive recordkeeping and investment fees and included one or more poorly-performing investment options in the plan. Recent cases in […]
A January 15 Department of Labor (“DOL”) News Release explained “where [the DOL] will focus its enforcement resources to increase broad-based employee benefit plan compliance, address abusive practices and bad actors, and deliver results that increase security for participants and beneficiaries” during 2026. The following enforcement activities will focus on defined contribution plans:
As background, proxy advisors advise shareholders about whether certain corporate proposals should be approved (e.g., executives’ compensation packages, board candidates’ election, and various other proposals included in a proxy ballot). In the ERISA context, mutual funds have long constituted retirement plans’ main investment vehicle. Thus, those plans hold trillions of dollars of proxy voting power. […]
Given the continuing wave of ERISA litigation, this article has become a mainstay of The Speed Reader. The most common type of ERISA case involves retirement plan participants’ allegations that plan fiduciaries caused participants to pay excessive recordkeeping and investment fees and included one or more poorly-performing investment options in the plan. Recent cases in […]
As the end of 2025 approaches, retirement plan sponsors should promptly consider several important potential tasks. Examples include the following: The failure to comply with most of those requirements can be addressed under the IRS’s formal correction programs for retirement plans.
On November 13, via Notice 2025-67, the IRS announced the effect of cost-of-living adjustments on certain 2026 dollar limits for various retirement plans (e.g., 401(k), 403(b), and 457(b) plans). Several limits will increase for 2026 because of inflation, as the increase in the cost-of-living index met statutory thresholds that triggered their adjustment for 2026. Here […]