All right, I am getting back in the saddle after a couple weeks off from blogging to recharge my batteries and tie up some key end of the year issues in a few cases. Not wanting to do too much heavy lifting on my first day back on the blog beat, I thought I would
401(k) Plans
The Realities of Plan Fees – Or Why They Are Not Excessive Just Because They Exist
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in 401(k) Plans
Amidst all the commentary and lawsuits over excessive fees – or allegedly excessive fees – on 401(k) investment options comes this article pointing out all that advisors do to earn that money, and raising questions, at least implicitly, as to whether courts and critics are asking the wrong question when they inquire into the reasonableness…
How Much Employer Stock is Too Much? Anything More than a Little
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in 401(k) Plans
Here is a well-done article, with data spoon fed by BrightScope, on the issue of having large employer stock holdings in defined contribution plans. The article points out the extent to which some plans have very large employer stock holdings in them, as well as the efforts being taken by some employers to educate…
Some Notes From the Real World on the Practical Realities of Fee Disclosure
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in 401(k) Plans
I have worked over the years, formally or informally, with a number of third party administrators, investment advisors, and similar service providers to plans, and have always preferred those who bring to the table a real understanding of, and ability to communicate, the substantive issues that impact plan operation and performance. If you think of…
Citigroup, McGraw-Hill, and Moench
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in 401(k) Plans, Fiduciaries
Not unexpectedly, the Second Circuit has just adopted the Moench presumption, in this ruling here and this one here involving stock drop cases. For those with less time on your hands, here is an excellent news media summary of these stock drop rulings out of the Second Circuit yesterday. I have long posited that, given…
Defensive Plan Building After Loomis
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in 401(k) Plans, Fiduciaries
Many of you may remember the race among law firms, after the trial court ruling in Tibble, to issue client alerts advising plan sponsors to make sure they were not holding retail share classes in their 401(k) plan investment options. Now, of course, we have the Seventh Circuit holding that it is just plain…
Loomis, Hecker, Tibble and the Evolution of Excessive Fee Claims
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in 401(k) Plans, Fiduciaries
Well, well, well. Here is the story – well-presented by two lawyers from Williams Mullen – of the Seventh Circuit deciding this month, in the case of Loomis v Exelon Corporation, that holding retail class mutual fund shares, rather than cheaper institutional share classes, in a defined contribution plan was not sufficient to establish…
The New York Times on BrightScope
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in 401(k) Plans, ERISA Seminars and other Resources
I don’t have much to say about this, but I would be remiss if I didn’t pass along this article from the New York Times the other day on BrightScope and its founders. The article, rightly, notes that BrightScope has its critics, but there is no denying that their work is adding to the knowledge…
The New York Times, Fees, Regulation and Wrap Fees
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in 401(k) Plans
This is an interesting article from the New York Times, directed at plan participants who may want to increase the returns in their 401(k)s by decreasing the costs in their plans and of their investments. It is not interesting so much for what it says – nothing in it is likely to be very surprising…
Fee and Expense Disclosure: No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in 401(k) Plans, Third Party Administrators
I have commented before, including here, on the fact that there is some inherent tension between the fact that the administration of 401(k) plans costs something and the obligation of sponsors to, nonetheless, keep those costs down. One of the hoped for goals of the Department of Labor’s effort to shed light on fees…