Author Archives: jwatkins

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About jwatkins

I am a securities and ERISA attorney. I hold CFP Board Emeritus™ status and I am an Accredited Wealth Management Advisor™. I provide fiduciary risk management consulting to 401k/430b plans, trustees, RIAs and other investment fiduciaries. I am a 1977 graduate of Georgia State University and a 1981 graduate of the University of Notre Dame Law School. I am the author of "CommonSense InvestSense: The Power of the Informed Investor" and "The 401(k)/403(b) Investment Manual: What Plan Sponsors and Plan Participants REALLY Need To Know" I write two blogs, "CommonSense InvestSense, investsense.com, and "The Prudent Investment Fiduciary Rules, fiduciaryinvestsense.com. As a former compliance director, I have extensive experience in evaluating the legal prudence of various types of investments, including mutual funds and annuities. My goal is to combine my legal and compliance experience in order to help educate investors and investment fiduciaries on sound, proven investment strategies that will help them protect their financial security and/or avoid unnecessary fiduciary liability exposure.

Cost-Efficiency and Correlation of Returns: The Often Overlooked Factors in Fiduciary Investing

Posted on June 13, 2021 by jwatkins

“Properly measured, the average actively managed dollar must underperform the average passively managed dollar, net of costs….The best way to measure a manager’s performance is to compare his or her return with that of a comparable passive alternative.”1 Ask a … Continue reading →

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The SCOTUS Decision on Hughes v. Northwestern University: A Pivotal Point for Plan Sponsors and Plan Advisers?

Posted on June 10, 2021 by jwatkins

The Solicitor General of the United States recently filed an amicus brief with SCOTUS asking the Court to hear the case of Hughes v. Northwestern University (Northwestern). The case involves questions regarding the management of University’s 403(b) plan, specifically potential … Continue reading →

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1Q 2021 AMVR Cost-Efficiency “Cheat Sheet”

Posted on April 5, 2021 by jwatkins

We provide two sets of data so that users can choose which data to use. The nominal data is based on the publicly disclosed data. The second set of data is the nominal data adjusted for risk and the funds’ … Continue reading →

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“The Relentless Rules of Humble Arithmetic: 401(k) Fiduciary Litigation at the Crossroads”

Posted on March 31, 2021 by jwatkins

If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.”Justice D. Brandeis Brandeis SCOTUS is currently deciding whether to hear the Hughes v. Northwestern University1 403(b) case. The key issue in the case is an allegation … Continue reading →

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A Picture is Worth a 1,000 Words: Cost-Efficiency and the Future of 401(k) and Fiduciary Litigation

Posted on February 21, 2021 by jwatkins

I have written posts regarding the trends in 401(k) and 403(b) fiduciary breach litigation, including Common Sense and Cost-Efficiency: Making ERISA Meaningful Again | The Prudent Investment Fiduciary Rules (wordpress.com) and The Active Management Value Ratio™3.0: Cost-Efficiency and Compliance With … Continue reading →

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Common Sense and Cost-Efficiency: Making ERISA Meaningful Again

Posted on February 8, 2021 by jwatkins

After reading the court’s opinion dismissing the Intel 401(k) action, two things immediately came to mind: (1) the brilliance of the First Circuit’s Brotherston decision, and (2) how increasingly some of the dismissals of 401(k) actions seem to be more … Continue reading →

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The Active Management Value Ratio™3.0: Cost-Efficiency and Compliance With Securities AND ERISA Regulations

Posted on January 23, 2021 by jwatkins

FINRA’s current suitability standard is found in Rule 2111 (Rule). The Rule essentially sets up a three-part suitability analysis that broker-dealers and registered representatives must conduct before recommending investment products and/or strategies to the public. The two key standards contained … Continue reading →

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DIY Investor and Fiduciary Protection Strategies: 4Q 2020 401(k) Top Ten AMVR Analysis

Posted on January 5, 2021 by jwatkins

For the first new blog post since our blog and domain name were recovered, I figured it was only appropriate to re-christen the blog with our popular quarterly “cheat sheet” of the top non-index mutual funds in U.S. 401(k) plans. … Continue reading →

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Winds of Change

Posted on October 19, 2020 by jwatkins

I recently posted on both Twitter and LinkedIn my belief that plan participants should never lose a properly vetted 401(k)/403(b) fiduciary breach action. As expected, the posts drew a strong response. I recently participated in a private conference to discuss … Continue reading →

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Q3 2020 AMVR/InvestSense Quotient “Cheat Sheet”

Posted on October 4, 2020 by jwatkins

The quarterly AMVR/InvestSense Quotient “cheat sheet” analyzes the non-index mutual funds in the top ten mutual funds used in U.S. 401(k) plans, based upon the Top 100 list compiled annually by “Pensions and Investments.” For the 3Q 2020, only six … Continue reading →

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