Nonprofit Basics: Conflict of Interest Policies and Best Practices for Approving Insider Compensation
Nonprofit Basics: Insider Transactions and Nonprofits – What’s the Big Deal?
Conflicts of Interest in Healthcare and Elsewhere
Payment for Order Flow (PFOF) and Gamification: Your Questions Answered
Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 124: Listen and Learn -- Duty of Loyalty (Corporations)
Law School Toolbox Podcast Episode 282: Listen and Learn -- Duty of Loyalty (Corporations)
What to Do When Your University, FBI, or DOJ Knocks on Your Door: Responding to University, Criminal, and Civil Investigations
Videocast: Asset management regulation in 2020 videocast series – The ADV season
Videocast: Asset management regulation in 2020 videocast series – DOL: What’s ahead
Podcast: Credit Funds: Compliance Considerations for Valuation
CONVERGE18-Preview Podcasts-David Bunker on COIs in the Gig Economy
Podcast - Credit Funds: A Framework for Addressing and Mitigating Conflicts of Interest
Day 7 of One Month to Better Investigations and Report-How Investigations Inform Remediation
Day 15 of One Month to Better Compliance Through HR-Employment Separation Issues
Bill Beutler on Editing Wikipedia
Rules for rewarding 'super' condo board members
Bill on Bankruptcy: US Airways Need a Merger More than AMR
It’s amazing sometimes how people are blind to conflicts of interest that are as clear as day. In my local hamlet, the Library Board hired a School District board member as their attorney even though there is a financial...more
On October 31, 2023, following its announcement by President Biden, the US Department of Labor (DOL or Department) released its Proposal 4.0 regarding ERISA fiduciary investment advice, including amended exemptions for...more
The Department of Labor (“DOL”) on October 31, 2023—Halloween—issued a release (the “Release”) proposing to make changes to the 1975 rule (the “1975 Rule”) defining when institutions and individuals are providing fiduciary...more
On October 31, 2023, the Department of Labor published a new proposed regulation (the “Proposed Rule”) defining “investment advice” for purposes of determining when someone advising an ERISA plan or participant or an IRA...more
Registered investment advisers, including dual registrant broker-dealers (collectively “advisers”) who provide discretionary investment management services to individual retirement accounts (IRAs), are fiduciaries under the...more
Yesterday the SEC’s Division of Enforcement announced its Enforcement Results for Fiscal Year 2022, and there are a few key takeaways for fund managers. The Commission brought 760 total enforcement actions in FY 2022,...more
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff recently published a bulletin reiterating the standards of conduct applicable to broker-dealers and investment advisers when making account recommendations to retail investors....more
The DOL has issued FAQs that generally explain PTE 2020-02 and the expanded definition of fiduciary advice. In FAQ 17, the DOL discusses both the implications of payout grids and mitigation techniques to minimize...more
It may be a New Year, but 2022 is going to seem very familiar to Broker-Dealers (BD) and their Registered Representatives who advise retirement plans and IRAs: they are going to be spending a lot of time working to comply...more
On October 25, 2021, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) released Field Assistance Bulletin 2021-02 (FAB 2021-02), which extends its non-enforcement policies regarding certain rules applicable to fiduciaries who provide...more
In Field Assistance Bulleting 2021-02, published on October 25, 2021, the US Department of Labor announced with respect to its Fiduciary Rule 3.0 that: ..The temporary ERISA enforcement policy for conflicted fiduciary...more
Overview: In general, the prohibited transaction rules (in ERISA and the Tax Code) (1) prohibit fiduciaries that provide investment advice to plans subject to Title I of ERISA (including 401(k) plans, pension plans and...more
The Department of Labor’s “Fiduciary Rule”, PTE 2020-02 (Part 11): The Requirement that Investment Advisers and Broker-Dealers Mitigate Conflicts - On February 16, 2021, the DOL’s prohibited transaction exemption (PTE)...more
Bad Behavior You Shouldn’t Replicate As A Plan Provider. I like to treat people the way I wanted to be treated. It usually works out, but there are instances where the other side doesn’t follow the path I’ve taken. As a...more
As a retirement plan provider, you need to understand where there is a conflict of interest if someone you know hires you. Whether it’s a family member, golf club, church, or bank where you serve as an advisory board member,...more
The US Department of Labor’s (DOL) new interpretation that rollover advice may be fiduciary “investment advice” for purposes of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA), will compel companies...more
Overview The U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) on December 15, 2020 issued a release (the “Release”) finalizing Prohibited Transaction Class Exemption (“PTCE”) 2020-2 (the “Final Exemption”) for retirement accounts...more
On December 18, 2020, the US Department of Labor (DOL or Department) adopted with limited changes its Proposal 3.0 regarding ERISA fiduciary investment advice, focused on the fiduciary status of rollover advice and a “best...more
The Department of Labor’s Proposed Prohibited Transaction Exemption and its Impact on Recommendations to Plans, Participants and IRAs (Part 2) - On July 7, 2020, the DOL issued a proposed prohibited transaction exemption...more
Just as broker-dealers and investment advisers finalized their initial implementation plans for the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Form CRS and Regulation Best Interest (Reg. BI), the US Department of Labor (DOL)...more
In August 2020, the SEC issued two orders against VALIC Financial Advisors Inc. (VFA) related to VFA’s management of 403(b) and 457(b) plans. These matters arise out of two of the SEC’s enforcement initiatives, the Teachers...more
I used to joke that no matter what I did, I could never make my parents happy. The same can be said with any attempt to change the fiduciary rule....more
On June 29, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (the Department) formally reinstated its “five-part test” for determining what constitutes “investment advice” under ERISA and Section 4975 of the Internal Revenue Code (the...more
I am always against conflict of interest, going back to the day pre-fee disclosure when producing third party administrators (TPAs) were not transparent about the revenue sharing they collect. Beyond that, I’m also against...more
We are actively looking for circumstances where an adviser is financially conflicted by incentives that could affect investment recommendations to clients. ... And I will tell you: the more we look, the more undisclosed or...more