Hot Topics in International Trade with Braumiller Law Group: Customs Broker Modernization Regulations 19 CFR 111
Investment Management Roundtable Discussion – Data Privacy and Security
SEC Activity with Fixed Income and Credit Funds
Bill on Bankruptcy: Easterbrook Turns the Tide on Student Loans
Confirmations: Plugging Into Electronic Confirmations
Bill on Bankruptcy: Rakoff Reverses Himself in Madoff Case
On December 30, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2021-03 (“FAB”), announcing its temporary enforcement policy for group health plan service provider disclosures under ERISA...more
Division BB of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (“Act”) broadly addresses surprise medical billing and health plan transparency. This post focuses on Section 202 of Division BB (the “Provision”), which establishes...more
Peloton has recalled all of its treadmill models—the Tread+ and Tread—“less than a month after it fought the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission as it warned that dozens of injuries and one death of a child had been...more
Buried in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (the “Act”), which is most known for its $2.3 trillion spending bill that combines $900 billion in stimulus relief for the COVID-19 pandemic, are important new rules...more
The recently enacted Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (“CAA”) requires new disclosures for brokers and other consultants providing services to certain group health plans. Under the CAA, “covered service providers”...more
Buried in the year-end Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) is a provision that requires group health plan brokers and consultants to make comprehensive fee disclosures similar to those that apply to retirement plans. As...more
The U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) on June 29, 2020 issued a release (the “Release”) proposing an important new initiative for retirement accounts (“Plans”) that are subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security...more
The US Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary standard rule has been befuddling the financial services industry for the past seven years. In its simplest form, it increases accountability for the brokers, planners and...more
On April 4, 2017 the U.S. Department of Labor issued an order effective April 9, 2017, stating that implementation of the so-called investor Fiduciary Rule applicable to Individual Retirement Accounts will be delayed until...more
In response to a request for interpretative guidance, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff (staff) advised on January 11, 2017 that Section 22(d) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 does not prevent a broker...more
REGULATION - DOL Issues Additional Guidance on Fiduciary Rule - On January 13, 2017, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a second set of guidance on its new fiduciary rules, which are scheduled to become...more
The SEC’s Division of Investment Management issued a no-action letter on January 11, 2017 explicitly permitting brokers to set their own commission rates for sales of so-called “clean shares” of mutual funds. Previously, as...more
SEC Issues Guidance on Mutual Fund Fee Structure - The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Division of Investment Management recently issued a guidance update addressing disclosure issues and certain procedural...more
Editor's Note - In This Issue.The SEC and FINRA released their examination priorities for 2017; the SEC’s Division of Investment Management issued an interpretative letter that would permit brokers to charge their own...more
The Financial Stability Board—that Swiss-based grand collection of central bankers and regulators from the world’s biggest economies—has upped the systemic importance ranking for three of America’s biggest banks, including...more
Merrill Lynch has already staked out the position in response to the DOL’s retirement account fiduciary duty rule that it would no longer offer commission-based IRAs to retirement savers. Yesterday, it effectively doubled...more
Employers and their financial advisors should consider enacting a multi-step plan amid anticipation that the proposed ERISA Fiduciary Rules turn effective. Last month, several business groups filed a complaint in the...more
This post continues our examination of the Department of Labor’s suite of final fiduciary and conflict of interest regulations. Our previous posts discussed the newly expanded definition of “investment advice fiduciary”; the...more
The Future Is Now For 401(k) Plan Sponsors. The future is here. When I was the head ERISA attorney at a New York based third party administrator (TPA), I left because I saw the future of the retirement plan...more
The U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) on April 6, 2016 released the final version of its “investment advice” regulation and accompanying prohibited transaction exemptions, a highly-anticipated milestone that is the...more
The Struggles Of Being A Retirement Plan Provider And How To Manage It. What you have to deal with. Any good retirement plan financial advisor will tell you that relationships in the retirement plan business mean...more
One of the interesting points of the new fiduciary rule is the best interest exemption that is intended to stop conflicts of interests especially for brokers who need to meet a new fiduciary standard. As long as a broker...more
The New Fiduciary Rule: What It Means To Plan Sponsors - Bottom line: what does it mean? If you're a retirement plan sponsor and, unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard about the Department...more
The U.S. Department of Labor released its long anticipated "fiduciary rule" on April 6, 2016. The rule requires brokers and financial advisers to put their clients' interests ahead of their own when recommending retirement...more
You read articles about the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) new fiduciary rule and experts will tell you that it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread, the worst thing since Caddyshack II, or somewhere in between. I learned a...more