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10 Matching News Items |
| 1. |
The Commonsense 401(k) Project
Dec. 16, 2025
"CFA charterholders are bound not only by applicable law (including ERISA), but by an independent professional code that places client interests, transparency, and integrity of the profession above product sales or industry narratives.... [A]ctively recommending annuities in 401(k) plans may run afoul of multiple CFA Institute standards, particularly where the risks and conflicts inherent in annuities are minimized, obscured, or ignored."
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The Commonsense 401(k) Project
Nov. 18, 2025
"Today, with the explosion of CITs, Target Date Funds, and revenue-sharing through trust structures, the case for including consultants as defendants has become overwhelming.... Consultants are parties-in-interest under ERISA -- making their compensation a prohibited transaction.... The new era of consultant conflicts: CITs, TDFs & hidden compensation.... Consultants have already paid millions in ERISA settlements -- and more cases are coming.... Litigation theory: how to plead consultant liability."
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The Commonsense 401(k) Project
Nov. 17, 2025
"This report expands and fully develops the legal, economic, regulatory, and fiduciary basis demonstrating that any allocation to Private Equity (PE) or Private Credit (PC) within a 401(k) Target Date Fund (TDF) -- including allocations as small as 1-10% -- renders the entire TDF a prohibited transaction under ERISA Sections 406(a) and 406(b)."
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The Commonsense 401(k) Project
Nov. 23, 2025
"More than half of all 401(k) assets -- and virtually all 403(b) and governmental 457 assets -- are held in products that are not SEC-regulated mutual funds. Tens of billions more sit in: Insurance company general-account annuities, Separate account annuities, State-regulated Collective Investment Trusts (CITs) ... Pension Risk Transfer (PRT) annuities.... Yet the federal agency responsible for enforcing ERISA -- the [DOL's EBSA) -- has almost no staff with expertise in investments, securities analysis, annuities, credit, or risk modeling."
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The Commonsense 401(k) Project
Nov. 3, 2025
"Defined Contribution (DC) plans -- primarily 401(k)s and 403(b)s -- now hold over $12 trillion in assets ... Within these plans, Target Date Funds (TDFs) are the default investment option for most participants. Increasingly, TDFs are being housed in Collective Investment Trusts (CITs) rather than SEC-registered mutual funds.... CITs operate in a poorly regulated gray zone.... TDFs held in state-regulated CITs are therefore emerging as one of the most dangerous and least transparent areas in the retirement system."
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The Commonsense 401(k) Project
Dec. 8, 2025
"State-regulated Collective Investment Trusts (CITs) are the primary mechanism Wall Street now uses to hide high-risk, high-fee products inside 401(k) plans -- including Private Equity, annuities, structured credit, and even crypto.... And the industry is now lobbying Congress to expand these opaque products even further -- through the INVEST Act, which would open the door for CITs in 403(b) plans, especially for teachers and nonprofit workers. This is not investor protection."
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The Commonsense 401(k) Project
Dec. 28, 2025
"[I]ndependent journalist and teacher Jim Vail documented a striking confrontation between Teacher Trustee Erika Meza and the Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund's external consultant, Callan Associates ... The exchange highlights the growing tension between rank-and-file educator fiduciaries and institutional insiders pushing private markets -- especially private equity -- with all of the attendant cost, complexity, and opacity that has plagued many U.S. public pension systems."
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The Commonsense 401(k) Project
Dec. 11, 2025
"In 2025, the consulting industry has quietly transformed into the single most important distribution channel for private equity. This shift cuts across every ownership model ... [T]he economic incentives all point in the same direction: Push pensions and retirement plans into higher-fee private equity and private credit -- regardless of long-term risk to beneficiaries."
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The Commonsense 401(k) Project
Dec. 29, 2025
"For more than 30 years, 'stable value' has been marketed to retirement plan fiduciaries as a conservative, low-risk, bond-like option. That description is only accurate for one form of stable value: diversified synthetic stable value. General Account (GA) and Separate Account (SA) stable value products are fundamentally different. They embed insurance spread products, opaque crediting decisions, and conflicted compensation structures that directly collide with ERISA's duties of loyalty, prudence, and prohibited-transaction rules."
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The Commonsense 401(k) Project
Nov. 6, 2025
"Every dismissal so far rests on one or more reversible errors. The most common: [1] Courts assume PRT annuities are safe -- contrary to market evidence ... [2] Courts misapply ERISA's burden of proof ... [3] Courts ignore prohibited transactions (the strongest claim) ... [4] Courts wrongly treat PBGC loss as irrelevant ... [5] Courts ignore offshore private-credit exposures inside insurer portfolios ... Judges have been asleep at the wheel. Appeals are not just warranted -- they are essential."
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