Allen Steinberg : Perspectives

Employee benefit plans—especially retirement and health care—have become an increasingly important part of the employment relationship. For employers, these plans represent an important part of the total compensation package, a tool for retention and recruitment, and a growing financial and compliance burden. For employees, these plans represent a key part of their overall financial security and wellbeing, a financial burden, and a source of complexity and frustration. In effect, it’s complicated. Our firm is dedicated to helping employers manage these complexities and focus on the important things.

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25.05.2021 08.58 CDT

What does it mean for a retirement plan to "protect" data--and are barriers to unauthorized access limited to blocking hacks?

Plan Data: What is “Secure”?

Plan Data: What is “Secure”?

What does it mean for a retirement plan to "protect" data--and are barriers to unauthorized access limited to blocking hacks?

There is an increased focus on protecting retirement plan data. However, both regulators and the courts are taking a narrow view of the kinds of protections that should be in place,

02.03.2021 03.16 CST

Plaintiffs’ must use truly comparable benchmarks in claiming imprudent fiduciary decisions.

Fiduciary Litigation Update

Fiduciary Litigation Update

New court rulings may benefit employers.

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).

15.07.2020 11.54 CDT

New DOL guidance would provide advisors with incentives to sell commissionable products.

DOL Completes Trifecta of Questionable Policies

DOL Completes Trifecta of Questionable Policies

The DOL’s new guidance reinstates prior definition of investment fiduciary and offers new exemption for (otherwise prohibited) forms of compensation for plan fiduciaries.

The Department of Labor has issued new guidance defining when an investment adviser is a plan fiduciary--and the standards that must be followed by investment fiduciaries. The guidance reinstates a 1975 test defining investment fiduciaries and proposes a new prohibited transaction exemption allowing fiduciaries to collect commissions and third-party payments.

03.07.2020 06.45 CDT

The U.S. Department of Labor has issued new proposed regulations that provide guidance on the process that plan fiduciaries should use in selecting ESG investments. In issuing the proposed regulations the DOL targets ESG funds and creates new requirements--and hurdles-to the use of such funds.

DOL Delivers Lump of Coal to ESG Funds

DOL Delivers Lump of Coal to ESG Funds

Proposed DOL regulations would add new restrictions to the use of ESG funds.

The Department of Labor has issued new proposed regulation regarding intended to guide plan fiduciaries seeking to invest in funds that utilize environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) considerations. The proposed regulations identify specific (additional) steps that fiduciaries must take in order to utilize ESG funds and would prohibit use of ESG funds within plan “default” investments.

28.05.2020 01.44 CDT

On May 15 the Department of Labor finalized new “safe harbor” rules for the use of electronic media to provide documents required under ERISA. These new rules represent a potentially important easing of the efforts needed for plan administrators to meet disclosure obligations under ERISA. However, a more careful review of the rules raises significant questions about whether the new rules will live up to their potential.

New Safe Harbor for Electronic Communication

New Safe Harbor for Electronic Communication

New options for the use of on-line disclosure

The Department of Labor has issued new “safe harbor” rules for the use of electronic media to provide documents required under ERISA. These new rules represent a potentially important easing of the efforts needed for plan administrators to meet disclosure obligations under ERISA. However, a more careful review of the rules raises significant questions about whether the new rules will live up to their potential.