Defined Contribution Plans

“…after meaningful motion practice, discovery, and arm's-length negotiations by experienced counsel, including a private mediation with an experienced neutral mediator,” the parties in an excessive fee suit have come to terms — in less than a year. The parties here — plaintiffs Trudy Clark, Donna... READ MORE

In working on behalf of retirement plans, retirement plan participants, and those who support them, one of the constants is the importance of a bipartisan approach, American Retirement Association CEO and ASPPA Executive Director Brian Graff stressed in his opening remarks at the 2022 ASPPA Annual... READ MORE

Just as the Department of Labor (DOL) gets set to release a final regulation allowing the use of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors by fiduciaries when selecting plan investments, another bill has been introduced in Congress that seeks to dial that back.  The Safeguarding... READ MORE

Legislation that could affect retirement plans is pending on Capitol Hill — the midterm elections loom and its remaining weeks after that will be a “lame-duck” session. But that may not spell doom for those bills, suggested American Retirement Association CEO Brian Graff at the Oct. 3 opening... READ MORE

New research finds that households with public-sector defined contribution (DC) plan participants who have a primary defined benefit (DB) plan feel more comfortable spending than those without a primary DB plan, but that comfort level may be short-sighted. According to the research conducted by... READ MORE

We don’t know all the particulars yet, but a number of pending excessive fee suits have announced settlements. In a case of good news, bad news, the pace of excessive fee settlements seems to be accelerating (that would be the bad news), but the size of those same settlements seems to be declining... READ MORE

Our industry has long fretted over how 401(k) participants will respond to volatile markets. And perhaps not surprisingly, these days the headlines are, generally speaking, full of “stay the course” assurances.    That said, as recently as a month ago the headlines — even OUR headlines read things... READ MORE

A new suit claims that the decision to retain proprietary funds in the 401(k) was “polluted by self-interest,” driven by a “blind preference” and that “defendants’ favoritism has led to the payment of excessive investment management fees. This time the plaintiff is current participant Sandy... READ MORE

A case that hinged on the determination of fiduciary status based on control of plan assets—has been decided—again—in favor of the defendants.  The original suit (Rozo v. Principal Life Ins. Co., S.D. Iowa, No. 4:14-cv-00463-JAJ-CFB, 5/12/17), was brought by plaintiff Frederick Rozo[1] on behalf... READ MORE