Excerpt: The [LaRue v. DeWolff Supreme Court] case adds to the litigation concerns that threaten to chill growth of advisor-sold 401(k) plans to small- and mid-sized businesses, an increasingly productive area for many financial advisors. At Fidelity alone, total record-kept assets in such plans stood at $21.2 billion at the end of 2007, an increase of 26% from the previous year. Several factors are helping to drive the growth in advisor-sold 401(k) plans, including the Pension Protection Act of 2006, which provided guidelines necessary to encourage plan sponsors to retain qualified fiduciary advisors and to define safe harbor procedures to insulate them from the liability associated with the advice.

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