Tag Archives: Prudent

Things I Worry About (22): Pooled Employer Plans and DOL RFI (3)


DOL
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Key Takeaways

  • The DOL has issued guidance about PEPs—pooled employer plans—that provides tips for adopting employers and questions about PEPs and a possible fiduciary safe harbor for small employers who adopt PEPs.
  • This article begins a discussion of the questions that the DOL says that employers should ask when considering adopting a PEP for their employees.

This series of articles examines the DOL’s July 29, 2025 release that includes interpretative guidance on PEPs, solicits information about PEP practices, includes tips for selecting PEPs, and discusses a possible fiduciary safe harbor for adopting PEPs. 2025-14281.pdf (SECURED).

The first two articles in this series,  Things I Worry About (20) and Things I Worry About (21), discussed some of the DOL’s findings when it reviewed the 2023 Forms 5500 filed by PEPs. This article moves on to the questions that the DOL suggested employers ask when adopting PEPs. That section—entitled “Fiduciary Tips for Small Employers Selecting a PEP”—posed 9 questions that employers should ask. This article and my next two provide the DOL’s questions and comments, as well as my comments.

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Things I Worry About (17): Executive Orders, Private Funds, and Fiduciary Standards (3)


DOL, fiduciary
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Key Takeaways

  • The Trump administration has issued an Executive Order about facilitating 401(k) investments in “alternative assets.”
  • The Order directs the Secretary of Labor to examine current guidance and decide if it is appropriate for that purpose.
  • The Order also directs the Secretary of Labor to issue guidance to clarify fiduciary responsibilities for 401(k) investing in alternative assets and to consider providing fiduciary guidance.

My last two articles, Things I Worry About (15) and Things I Worry About (16), reviewed  the President’s August 7 Executive Order (EO) entitled Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors (Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(K) Investors – The White House) and some of the misunderstandings about what the EO says.

This article focuses on parts of the EO that I believe to be particularly significant.

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The New Fiduciary Rule (12): Advisors and Agents with Restricted Investment Menus (Part 1)


2020-02, 84-24, best interest, DOL, fiduciary, prohibited transaction
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The U.S. Department of Labor has released its package of proposed changes to the regulation defining fiduciary advice and to the exemptions for conflicts and compensation for investment recommendations to retirement plans, participants (including rollovers), and IRAs.

Key Takeaways

  • The Department of Labor’s proposed fiduciary “package” expands the scope of fiduciary status (to include, e.g., one-time recommendations) and the types of transactions that are covered by fiduciary advice.
  • That is particularly important since, where the fiduciary recommendation involves a conflict of interest (e.g., a new fee or a commission), the firms and their representatives and agents will need to satisfy the conditions of either PTE 84-24 or PTE 2020-02.
  • One question that arises under the best interest standard in the PTEs is whether an adviser or agent can make recommendations from limited, or restricted, menus of available products.

This article focuses on PTE 2020-02 and the relief it provides to broker-dealers, investment advisers, banks and trust companies, and insurance companies that sell through employees and statutory employees.

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Best Interest Standard of Care for Advisors #44


best interest, broker-dealers, DOL, fiduciary, investment adviser, IRA, prohibited transaction, SEC
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The Department of Labor’s Prohibited Transaction Exemption and Its Impact on Recommendations to Plans, Participants and IRAs (Part 9)

On February 16, 2021, the DOL’s prohibited transaction exemption (PTE) 2020-02 became effective. The PTE is titled “Improving Investment Advice for Workers & Retirees.” It allows investment advisers, broker-dealers, banks, and insurance companies (“financial institutions”), and their representatives (“investment professionals”), to receive conflicted compensation resulting from non-discretionary fiduciary investment advice to retirement plans, participants and IRA owners (“retirement investors”).

In the preamble to the PTE, the DOL announced an expanded definition of fiduciary advice, meaning that many more financial institutions and investment professionals will be fiduciaries and therefore will need the protections afforded by the exemption. In addition, they will need prudent, or best practice, processes to satisfy the fiduciary and best interest standards of care.

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