"The bill now includes provisions from the Retirement Improvement and Savings Enhancement (RISE) Act that came out of the House Education and Labor Committee last November. Several key provisions are [listed in this article]."  MORE >>

"The wide-ranging bill contains provisions aimed at expanding plan coverage, boosting savings, increasing lifetime income options and streamlining plan administration. Several revenue-raising proposals would direct more workplace savings into after-tax Roth accounts. In addition, the [DOL] would have to review its fiduciary guidance for defined benefit (DB) pension risk transfers."  MORE >>

"The fastest-growing trend ... is a push by recordkeepers to add a managed account service to the plan features.... The service comes with an ongoing fee that ranges from 20 to 50 basis points (0.20%-0.50%). This fee is applied to the entire account balance ... At first glance, this fee may not appear meaningful, but remember, this fee is in addition to embedded investment manager fees (fund expense ratios), the base annual recordkeeping fee and participant transaction fees."  MORE >>

"The Starter-K Act of 2022 was introduced by Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Tom Carper (D-DE) ... The bill would create starter retirement plans that streamline regulations and lower costs for small businesses and start-ups, resulting in more access to easy retirement savings."  MORE >>

22 presentation slides. Topics: [1] PTCE 84-24; [2] Unsolicited rollover recommendations; [3] Consideration of cashouts under defined benefit plans; [4] Treatment of cryptocurrency in 401(k) plans and IRAs; [5] Tax law changes affecting investors in tax-qualified plans and IRAs; and [6] A new government agency: the Cybersecurity Guaranty Corporation.  MORE >>

"The DOL alleges that the defendants violated their fiduciary duties of diversification, loyalty and prudence under [ERISA] by employing Ruane, Cunniff's non-diversification strategy for the plan's assets. It also claims that the DST defendants failed to follow the plan document by not establishing a written investment policy for the plan and that they failed to monitor the investment manager." [Walsh v. Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb, Inc., No. 19-9302 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 28, 2022)]  MORE >>

"Vinoskey highlights the importance of a thorough and deliberate (and well-documented) due diligence review by an ESOP trustee and its valuation firm, as well as the importance of being able to produce evidence or a record of meaningful negotiations between the ESOP trustee and a seller over the ESOP purchase price."  MORE >>

"Participants who were self-directing their accounts were much more likely to trade than those in a professionally managed investment, an effect that was especially pronounced among older participants.... [O]lder participants who traded made larger allocations changes, and overwhelmingly moved to more conservative allocations. These participants effectively locked in a negative return that will likely permanently reduce their expected income during retirement."  MORE >>

"Private equity titans are raking in record assets and getting rewarded record windfall gains, which is fine as long as they're delivering the long-term performance.... So [the question for] US public pensions is this: if you're not doing enough co-investments to reduce fee drag and maintain a healthy allocation to PE, then why are you investing in private equity? To make billionaires a lot wealthier?"  MORE >>

18 pages. "[This whitepaper] is a guide to the common tactics used by plaintiff law firms to stack the deck with misleading claims.... The simple fact remains that most large defined contribution retirement plans in this country have low recordkeeping fees ... But given the rampant misrepresentations of actual fee levels in the excess fee lawsuit claims, federal courts have not been given the proper perspective or context to make informed decisions on threshold pleading motions."  MORE >>

"[P]lans are being advised to unilaterally insert defensive clauses into their plans in an effort to reduce 401(k) and 403(k) litigation. Given the fact that such clauses would obviously only benefit the plan, it would seem that such strategies would blatantly violate the plan sponsor's fiduciary duty ... to act exclusively in the best interests of the plan participants and their beneficiaries. As for SECURE 2.0, forcing employees to contribute to a non-compliant ERISA plan raises obvious legal liability questions. As for allowing annuities, in any form, in 401(k) plans, [this] is indefensible[.]"  MORE >>