Podcast - New Guidance on Complying with FTC Rule on Deceptive and Unfair Fees
Under the Hood: Exploring the CFPB's 2025 Focus — Moving the Metal: The Auto Finance Podcast
Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: Private Civil Consumer Financial Services Litigation to Partially Fill CFPB Void - Part 2
Requiem for the Rules: The Rise and Fall of the Junk Fee and CARS Rules — Moving the Metal: The Auto Finance Podcast
The FTC and Connecticut Join Forces for Action Against Nissan Dealer
Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: A Close Look at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Proposed Rules on Overdraft and Nonsufficient Funds Fees
Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: The Federal Trade Commission: Looking Back at 2023 and Looking Ahead to 2024 and Beyond
An In-Depth Analysis of the CFPB’s Proposed Overdraft Rule - The Consumer Finance Podcast
The FTC Takes Initiative to Stop Junk Fees
Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: The Biden Admin “Junk Fees” Initiative Continues: What the Latest Actions Mean for the Consumer Financial Services and Rental Housing Industries, Pt 1
AD Nauseam: Junk Fees Will Keep Us Together
CFPB’s War on Junk Fees - The Consumer Finance Podcast
Recent Tenth Circuit Decision in John Q Hammons Fall Following SCOTUS’ Decision in Siegel v. Fitzgerald Could Result in Significant Refunds for Certain Chapter 11 Debtors
The Constitutionality of Increased Trustee Fees In Bankruptcy
2BInformed: The Future of Fluoride in Drinking Water, the New TSCA Fees Rule, and the Drinking Water Contaminant Candidate List 5
Immigration Insights Podcast: International Entrepreneur Parole Program & Biometrics Requirement
I-22- The Benefits of Benefits: A Roundtable Discussion on Trending Benefits Issues for 2018
Investment Management Update – Fees and Expenses
Bill on Bankruptcy: Rakoff Reverses Himself in Madoff Case
FINRA’s continued focus on account recommendations and rollovers is evident in its 2025 FINRA Annual Regulatory Oversight Report (the Report), Based on the Report, broker-dealers and their registered representatives...more
Sponsors of 401(k) plans are increasingly recognizing the need to provide personalized investment options for their participants; however, access to managed accounts still remains limited....more
When it comes to health and fitness, you constantly hear studies about what foods fight or cause cancer. Of course, those studies are then debunked. I remember how oat bran was cited to cut down on cholesterol and how...more
People who didn’t sponsor a plan or weren’t involved in the retirement plan industry before 2012, think some 401(k) industry veterans like myself, are part of some multiverse when we talk about life before fee disclosure. The...more
The Fifth Circuit recently reversed a district court’s dismissal of claims that the fiduciaries of a 401(k) plan breached the duty of prudence under ERISA by offering participants retail share classes instead of cheaper...more
DaVita agrees to $2M settlement of class action over retirement plan fees - The plaintiffs alleged the company failed to properly monitor its $2.6-billion 401(k) and was paying higher-than-necessary administrative fees,...more
If you’re in line to receive a significant inheritance, your feelings may range from exhilaration to relief, not to mention a great deal of sadness for the loved one who has passed. Indeed, a large infusion of cash or assets...more
The fee disclosure regulations were one of the best things that ever happened to the retirement plan business. Yet, what is great, can be improved....more
In a September 29, 2023 Advisory Opinion issued to Citigroup Inc. (“Citi”), the Department of Labor (“DOL”) addressed several key ERISA implications arising in connection with a Citi Racial Equity Program (the “Program”). ...more
Fiduciaries of 401(k) and other retirement plans continue to be targeted by class action lawsuits brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) challenging fiduciary decisions regarding investment options...more
I once said that I thought I lived in a great community until I joined the Facebook community newsgroups. You just can’t imagine what people think. The same can be said about some of these polls of plan participants, which...more
Competing plan providers hear it all the time from prospective clients all the time, about how their current provider would never overcharge them. Unless a plan sponsor benchmarks the fee they are being charged (which is...more
U.S. Bank and its 401(k) Savings Plan is the latest target of a class action lawsuit in Minnesota. According to the complaint, from the years 2016 through 2021, the Plan paid an effective average annual administration fee of...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
Welcome to the latest issue of Bracewell’s FINRA Facts and Trends, a monthly newsletter devoted to condensing and digesting recent FINRA developments in the areas of enforcement, regulation and dispute resolution. This...more
Following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Hughes v. Northwestern University, courts around the country continue to articulate the pleading requirements for a breach of duty of prudence claim under the Employee Retirement...more
A “managed account” is a discretionary portfolio management service that makes investment decisions for individual participants within the confines of a 401(k) plan and its fund options. This service is fundamentally...more
On Friday, the Ninth Circuit became the first circuit court to rule in a 401(k) plan fee and investment litigation following the Supreme Court’s January 2022 decision in Hughes v. Northwestern University, 142 S. Ct. 737...more
It started sometime last year and, in hindsight, was inevitable. Clients with 401(k) plans and a crypto-savvy employee population began asking whether they could offer cryptocurrency as a plan investment option. In the...more
On January 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down an important decision affecting plan fiduciaries who select investment options available to participants in a self-directed employee retirement plan (such as a 401(k)...more
On January 24, 2022, in a rare, unanimous 8-0 decision (Justice Barrett recused herself from the case), the Supreme Court of the United States (the “Supreme Court”) vacated a Seventh Circuit affirmation of the dismissal of...more
In Hughes v. Northwestern University, current and former participants in Northwestern University's defined-contribution retirement plans filed litigation on behalf of the plans' participants asserting that the University, its...more
Just this month, the Supreme Court issued its much anticipated decision in Northwestern University, the first time the Court has been called upon to examine a lawsuit alleging that a 401(k) plan’s investment and fees were...more
Since the first round of cases were filed in 2006, plaintiffs’ counsel have raised hundreds of lawsuits challenging the prudence of fees and investments in 401(k) plans. One of the critical issues in those cases is what needs...more
The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling this week in Hughes v. Northwestern University will do nothing to stem the rising tide of retirement plan fee litigation. But the ruling doesn’t mean fiduciary breach claims are more likely to...more