A recent court case provides some potentially valuable guidance into ways plan fiduciaries can approach fiduciary litigation. Most importantly, the case could force plaintiffs to focus on truly comparable situations in alleging that a plan’s actions were imprudent--this would limit plaintiffs’ ability to use, as benchmarks of prudent behavior, general industry data or different categories of investments (such as comparing index funds to actively managed funds).

The IRS recently approved a new plan design that allows employees to receive employer retirement contributions either by (i) making deferrals into the employer’s retirement plan, or (ii) making student loan repayments.

Increased reliance on HSAs is going to be a key element of any TrumpRyanCare bill. Although it may be tempting to compare Health Savings Accounts and 401(k) plans, such comparisons underestimate the challenges of increasing individuals’ reliance on HSAs to finance health care.