In Advisory Opinion 2011-09A (October 20, 2011), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) returned to the ERISA prohibited transaction treatment of futures contracts in individual retirement accounts (IRA). DOL opined in 2009 that the pledge of an IRA owner’s personal assets at a brokerage firm to cover investment losses or taxes in excess of the IRA account balance incurred in a futures trading account maintained by the broker for the IRA was a prohibited extension of credit from the IRA owner to the IRA under Internal Revenue Code § 4975.....

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