The new “retirement security rule” package, issued by the U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) on October 31, 2023, is the latest chapter in an almost 15-year effort by the DOL to amend the five-part test in its 1975...more
11/28/2023
/ 401k ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary-Standards ,
Individual Retirement Account (IRA) ,
Investment ,
Investors ,
IRA Rollovers ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Proposed Rules ,
PTEs ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Responding to the “terrifying” reality that conflicted investment advice is costing retirement savers billions of dollars each year, on October 31, 2023, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued proposed rules representing its...more
11/1/2023
/ 401k ,
Comment Period ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
Investment ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Management ,
IRA Rollovers ,
Prohibited Transactions ,
Proposed Regulation ,
PTEs ,
Retirement
In late 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) issued final regulations (the “Final Rules”) which address the extent to which ERISA plan fiduciaries may consider environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) factors...more
In late 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) issued final regulations (the “Final Rules”) which address the extent to which ERISA fiduciaries may consider environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) factors when...more
A recent Ninth Circuit decision has generated considerable controversy amongst employee benefits practitioners by holding that plan fiduciaries engaged in prohibited transactions when they amended the plan’s existing...more
9/22/2023
/ 401k ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Class Action ,
Compensation ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Investment Adviser ,
Real Party in Interest ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Service Agreements
A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (Patterson v. United HealthCare Ins. Co., No. 22-3167, 2023 WL 4882436 (6th Cir. Aug. 1, 2023)) illustrates the importance of clearly describing key plan...more
In addition to the excitement of the upcoming outdoor concert season, Proskauer’s lawyers are anxiously awaiting VERY different forms of entertainment:
the next installment of the never-ending saga of U.S. Department of...more
5/19/2023
/ Appeals ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Exemptions ,
Fiduciary Rule ,
Individual Retirement Account (IRA) ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRA Rollovers ,
Proposed Amendments ,
QPAM
A recent Seventh Circuit decision affirms the principle that an ERISA severance plan can reserve to the employer discretion over who is eligible for severance benefits. The case is Carlson v. Northrop Grumman Severance Plan,...more
The grab bag of retirement provisions in the SECURE 2.0 legislation that was enacted at the end of 2022 included an expansion of the ability for a section 401(k) or 403(b) plan, or a governmental section 457(b) plan, to...more
Proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”) and Glass Lewis (“GL”) each published their annual policy updates for 2023, which updates made certain changes relating to executive compensation. As a general...more
12/15/2022
/ Clawbacks ,
Compensation ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Executive Compensation ,
Glass Lewis ,
Immigrants ,
Incentives ,
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ,
Proxy Season ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Severance Pay
On November 22, 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (the “DOL”) released final regulations (the “Final Rules”) that are intended to be more supportive of ERISA fiduciaries...more
On October 21st, the IRS announced changes to its qualified plan determination letter program. Most notably, the program has been expanded to include section 403(b) tax-sheltered annuity plans (“403(b) plans”). Although...more
On November 28, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) published the final clawback rules (the “Final Rules”) under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”) in the Federal...more
Twelve years after the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and many years after the Securities and Exchange Commission started considering regulations implementing the clawback...more
The SEC’s final rule on Pay Versus Performance becomes effective on October 8, 2022, and will require new executive compensation disclosures for the upcoming proxy season (for annual proxy statements that include executive...more
9/23/2022
/ Business Development ,
CD&A ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Employee Benefits ,
Executive Compensation ,
Financial Reporting ,
GAAP ,
New Rules ,
Pensions ,
Performance Standards ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ,
Shareholders ,
Smaller Reporting Companies ,
Total Shareholder Return (TSR)
In McQuillin v. Hartford Life and Accident Ins. Co., 36 F.4th 416 (2d Cir. 2022), the U.S Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit restored a claimant’s action for disability benefits due to the plan administrator’s failure to...more
You do not need a Lexis or Westlaw subscription to know that major cases and significant judgments have sometimes hinged on the meaning of a single word, or the placement of a single Oxford comma. We have a recent case to add...more
A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Wit et al. v. United Behavioral Health and Alexander et al. v. United Behavioral Health) exemplifies the challenge in balancing a desire to cover evolving...more
Effective April 1, 2022, high-deductible health plans can once again offer first-dollar coverage for telehealth and other remote services without making participants ineligible for health savings account (“HSA”)...more
On December 21, 2021, the Department of Labor (the “DOL”) published a Supplemental Statement (the “Supplemental Statement”) to its June 3, 2020 Information Letter (the “2020 Letter”) addressing fiduciary considerations for...more
1/14/2022
/ 401k ,
403(b) Plans ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Defined Contribution Plans ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Information Letters ,
Investment ,
Investment Management ,
Private Equity ,
Retirement Plan ,
Risk Alert
On October 14, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (the “DOL”) published in the Federal Register a new proposed regulation (the “Proposed Rules”) on fiduciary responsibility in...more
11/22/2021
/ Comment Period ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Management ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Proxy Voting Guidelines ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Retirement Plan
Whether a one-time payment of benefits constitutes an employee benefit plan under ERISA has been the source of some consternation in the courts for many years. The Fifth Circuit, in Atkins v. CB&I, LLC, recently had occasion...more
On November 3, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of the Solicitor of Labor (the “DOL”) issued an opinion letter (the “2020 Letter”) to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (“SIFMA”) stating that...more
On March 10, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) issued a statement that it intends to revisit its final rules issued late last year on “Financial Factors in Selecting Plan Investments” (summarized here) and...more
On October 30, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) issued a final rule on “ESG” investing which requires ERISA plan fiduciaries to base investment decisions on financial factors alone, prohibits fiduciaries from...more