To me, intellectually, all roads lead to Hecker right now, as the sort of touchstone around which all thinking about fiduciary obligations and the amounts of fees charged in 401(k) plans must revolve. Hecker, of course, found not only that a broad range of offering meant that marketplace discipline guaranteed appropriate fees, but also
Fiduciaries
Harmon on Delegation of Fiduciary Duties in the First Circuit
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in ERISA Statutory Provisions, Fiduciaries
Just briefly, as I have been traveling and haven’t reviewed the case myself, Roy Harmon on his excellent Health Plan Law blog, analyzes a decision out of the First Circuit on the manner in which a fiduciary can properly delegate its authority; the decision found that excessive formality wasn’t mandated. You can find Roy’s analysis…
You Say Securities, I Say ERISA
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in 401(k) Plans, Fiduciaries
I have to admit I have found the Workplace Prof blog tough sledding since the site’s founding blogger, Paul Secunda, took retirement from the site, apparently to spend more time in the snow in Wisconsin. Without Paul, the blog has trended heavily towards labor law and lacks the type of frequent, insightful commentary…
Excessive Fee Litigation and the Small Plan
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in 401(k) Plans, Fiduciaries
It has become a given in any talk on 401(k) plans and fiduciary liability that I give these days – my comment that, when the market was always going up, up, up, no one cared that they might have made 15% instead of 14% but for some unresolved problem with a plan’s structure, but with…
More ERISA Blogging for Those of You Who Can’t Get Enough
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Fiduciaries
Kevin O’Keefe, the lawyer turned blogging evangelist behind the company that hosts this blog, told me when I was picking a topic for my blog that I should choose a subject where there was plentiful source material to work from on a day in, day out basis. They were oddly prophetic words, in that…
Hecker, InsideCounsel and Defensive Plan Building
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Hecker is the gift that keeps on giving, for either an academic or a blogger (or perhaps a blogger with an academic frame of mind). It presents a wealth of issues warranting further consideration, running from those commented on in my prior posts on the Seventh Circuit’s decision, to one I haven’t even passed on…
Looking at Fiduciary Performance from the Vantage Point of a Plan Participant
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in 401(k) Plans, Fiduciaries
I had dinner recently with the brothers Alfred, Mike and Ryan, two of the co-founders of BrightScope, and much of the conversation centered around the question of transitioning the management and analysis of 401(k) plans from a practice oriented perspective to a plan participant oriented one. Translated into practical terms, this encompasses the…
Hecker and the Development of the Law on the 404(c) Defense
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Pension Fiduciaries in the Hot Seat – What to Avoid and How to React if Sued
By Stephen Rosenberg on
I and a cast of thousands will be speaking at a webinar on April 14th on “Pension Fiduciaries in the Hot Seat – What to Avoid and How to React if Sued,” put on by Pension Governance, Inc. Well, its not really a cast of thousands, just me and four very experienced worthies, who know…
How Much Information Is Enough to Decide A Breach of Fiduciary Duty Lawsuit?
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Is a motion to dismiss a good tool for disposing of major breach of fiduciary duty lawsuits? In essence, should it be treated as a mini-summary judgment proceeding, that tests the sufficiency of the case’s theories against, not the detailed facts of a specific case, but instead against the world as a whole as understood…