PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Exploring the Value of Qualified Default Investment Alternatives
Legal Alert | DOL Opens ESG Door: What Does It Mean for Plan Fiduciaries?
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - What Constitutes Plan Assets Under ERISA?
Corporate Fiduciaries Holding Cryptocurrency - Digital Planning Podcast
Legislation Discussion with PA State Senator Tom Killion
Discussion of PA’s Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act
Timely insights into the latest developments in wealth transfer, estate administration, trust planning, and estate tax portability. Join the Williams Mullen Private Client & Fiduciary Services team for our 17th Annual...more
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) forfeiture litigation landscape continues to evolve as courts continue to weigh in on the viability of this novel theory of ERISA liability. As explained in a...more
At Robins Kaplan’s annual Fiduciary and Wealth Disputes Seminar “What Keeps Fiduciaries Up At Night?” attendees heard from John Taft, Vice Chair at Baird and a 40-year veteran of the financial services industry....more
This presentation will address fiduciary issues that Texas courts resolved during the review period of summer of 2024 to summer of 2025. The presentation will review the following issues: whether a party has a right to jury...more
As discussed in a previous Holland & Knight alert, there has been a recent uptick in Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) class actions challenging employers' tobacco-free wellness programs. Plaintiffs in...more
In January 2025, the Northern District of Texas ruled that ESG factors influenced investment decisions by 401(k) plan fiduciaries in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA"), despite those decisions...more
The U.S. Senate has confirmed Daniel Aronowitz as assistant secretary of labor, placing him in charge of the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), the arm of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) responsible for...more
The Spotlight strives to provide a forum to discuss the latest news and compelling issues impacting fiduciaries and those to whom fiduciaries owe duties. Whether you are an officer, director, trustee, beneficiary, trust...more
The Second Circuit recently made two rulings of interest to ERISA litigators and to fiduciaries of 401(k) or other defined contribution plans. In the first ruling, the court held that individual plan participants did not have...more
On August 7, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order (the Order) instructing federal agencies to expand access to alternative asset investments for participants in defined-contribution retirement plans such as 401(k)...more
The law of trusts originated in equity to evade the constraints of common law; it was a part of property law in which one person held legal title to assets and another held equitable title. The person holding legal title...more
The Delaware Supreme Court’s June 17, 2025 decision in In re Columbia Pipeline Group Merger Litigation reversed a $199 million damages award against TC Energy for aiding and abetting breaches by fiduciaries of Columbia...more
If you serve on a retirement plan committee, you’ve taken on an important and legally significant role. As a fiduciary under the ERISA, you are personally liable for the decisions you make regarding the plan. That’s not a...more
As anticipated, the Department of Labor (DOL) recently changed its position with respect to certain investment choices that 401(k) plan fiduciaries sometimes consider or make available to plan participants, including...more
On March 25, Delaware adopted significant amendments to §§ 144 and 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law which aim to provide greater clarity and predictability to corporate fiduciaries in light of certain recent...more
Two recent class action lawsuits charging a breach of fiduciary duty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) have increased the stakes and raised important considerations regarding a plan fiduciary’s duty of...more
In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the U.S. Supreme Court knocked down Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council Inc., leaving the doctrine of Chevron deference in rubble. The doctrine stated that, when a...more
The U.S. Supreme Court on April 17, 2025, issued a greatly anticipated decision in which the justices unanimously held that plaintiffs alleging a prohibited transaction under Section 1106(a)(1)(C) of the Employee Retirement...more
On April 17, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in Cunningham v Cornell University, addressing the pleading standard applicable to prohibited transaction claims under the Employee Retirement Income...more
The Supreme Court of the United States issued one decision today: Cunningham v. Cornell University, No. 23-1007: This case addresses the pleading standard to assert a claim under a provision of the Employee Retirement...more
The judgment concerns the circumstances in which fiduciaries must account to their principals for the profits they make from their fiduciary relationships....more
The DOL recently updated the Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFCP). The VFCP encourages employers to voluntarily correct certain violations of ERISA to avoid DOL civil enforcement penalties....more
When hostilities break out between individual co-trustees, incumbent trust counsel faces a representation conundrum. In §8.8 of Loring and Rounds: A Trustee’s Handbook (2025), see appendix below, we grapple with the...more
While PC software programs are a practical improvement over the trustee’s hard-copy ledger book, when it comes to keeping track of trust income and principal these programs still require serious clerical monitoring on the...more
The United States Department of Labor (DOL) has released Field Assistance Bulletin 2025-01 (the Bulletin), providing much-needed guidance to fiduciaries of retirement plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security...more