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- May It Please The Court: THE EBSA’s Legally Unsupported, Unfounded, and Bootstrapped Policies Create a Systemic Threat to Plan Participants and Plan Sponsors Alike and Must Be Rejected
- A Call for Senate Oversight Hearings: The Systemic Risk to Plan Sponsors and Plan Participants Created by the EBSA’s Expansive and Legally Unsupported Extrapolations of ERISA Fiduciary Principles
- DOL/EBSA Field Assistance Bulletin 2026-01 Is Not Entitled to Judicial Deference Under The Loper Bright Decision
- Fatally Flawed: Why DOL Administrative Bulletin 2026-01 Will Not, and Should Not, Withstand Judicial Scrutiny
- Terminal Wealth: The True Fiduciary Prudence Paradigm with Regard to the In-Plan Annuity Scam
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Category Archives: wealth management
The 401(k)/404(c) Plan Sponsor’s Achilles Heels Redux
With the effective date for the DOL’s new fiduciary standard getting closer, I have been receiving questions and calls from plans and fellow attorneys regarding the various obligations under the new standard. For that reason, I am re-posting an updated … Continue reading
Posted in 401k, 401k compliance, 401k investments, 404c, 404c compliance, compliance, fiduciary compliance, fiduciary law, investments, pension plans, retirement plans, wealth management
Tagged 401k, 401k compliance, 404c, 404c compliance, compliance, ERISA, fiduciary, fiduciary investing, fiduciary law, investment advisers, pension plans, retirement plans, wealth management
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Outsourcing: Panacea or Placebo?
Outsourcing has become a buzzword in the investment advisory industry. I have had many RIA firms tell me that they have outsourced bot their compliance and wealth management functions, allowing them to concentrate solely on marketing and gathering assets. In … Continue reading
2016 So Far and the Levy Decision
I recently posted an article on my blogs about the fact that not everyone is losing money in 2016. I had several people respond negatively, some rudely so, suggesting that I did not understand the cyclical nature of the stock … Continue reading
Posted in compliance, fiduciary compliance, fiduciary law, investments, RIA, RIA Compliance, securities, securities compliance, wealth management, wealth preservation
Tagged compliance, fiduciary, fiduciary law, investment advisers, RIA compliance, RIA risk management, risk management, securities compliance, wealth management, wealth preservation
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401K Mutual Funds Fail Fiduciary Prudence Test
Our recent analysis of the top ten mutual funds in 401(k) plans revealed that 7 of the 10 funds failed to pass our simple fiduciary prudence test. The funds were evaluated based on their five-year performance between 2011-2015. The findings … Continue reading
Posted in 401k, 401k compliance, 401k investments, 404c, 404c compliance, compliance, evidence based investing, fiduciary compliance, fiduciary law, investments, pension plans, wealth management, wealth preservation
Tagged 401k compliance, 404c, 404c compliance, ERISA, evidence based investing, fiduciary, fiduciary investing, fiduciary law, financial planning, investment advisers, investment analysis tools, pension plans, retirement plans, RIA, suitability, wealth management, wealth preservation
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Combining the Active Management Value Ratio 2.0™ and the Active Expense Ratio – A More Meaningful Evaluation of Fiduciary Prudence
“The two variables that do the best job in predicting [a mutual fund’s] performance are expense ratios and turnover.”- Burton Malkiel, “A Random Walk Down Wall Street” Registered investment advisers and their representatives are fiduciaries. The courts have consistently held … Continue reading
Posted in 401k, 401k compliance, 401k investments, 404c, 404c compliance, evidence based investing, fiduciary compliance, fiduciary law, investments, pension plans, retirement plans, wealth management, wealth preservation
Tagged 401k, 401k compliance, 404c compliance, asset allocation, ERISA, evidence based investing, fiduciary, fiduciary investing, fiduciary law, investment advisers, investment analysis tools, pension plans, portfolio optimization, RIA, RIA compliance, suitability, wealth management, wealth preservation
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ERISA, Fiduciary Duty and the Art of Skinnydipping
Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked. – Warren Buffett As followers of this blog know, I normally post once a month. However, I am making an exception due to the importance of the … Continue reading
Posted in 401k, 401k compliance, 401k investments, 404c, 404c compliance, compliance, evidence based investing, fiduciary compliance, fiduciary law, investments, pension plans, retirement plans, RIA, wealth management, wealth preservation
Tagged 401k, 401k compliance, 404c, 404c compliance, asset allocation, ERISA, fiduciary, fiduciary investing, fiduciary law, investment advisers, investment analysis tools, pension plans, retirement plans, RIA, suitability, wealth management, wealth preservation
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Cross-Examining Financial Planning’s Active vs. Passive Study
Financial Planning magazine recently ran an article on their online site purportedly to demonstrate that actively managed mutual funds provide better performance than passively managed mutual funds, such as the popular index funds. Whenever I see such claims, the securities … Continue reading
Posted in 401k, 401k compliance, 401k investments, 404c, 404c compliance, evidence based investing, fiduciary compliance, fiduciary law, investments, pension plans, retirement plans, wealth management, wealth preservation
Tagged 401k, 401k compliance, 404c, 404c compliance, ERISA, evidence based investing, fiduciary, fiduciary investing, fiduciary law, financial planning, investment advisers, modern portfolio theory, pension plans, retirement plans, RIA risk management, wealth management, wealth preservation
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Protecting Your Practice with the Active Management Value Ratio 2.0™
RIAs often have mock audits performed. These audits generally focus on the various regulatory requirements for RIA, including the various documents and internal procedures of an RIA. More often than not, these mock audits do not include a forensic fiduciary … Continue reading
Posted in 401k, 401k compliance, 401k investments, 404c, 404c compliance, compliance, evidence based investing, fiduciary compliance, fiduciary law, investments, pension plans, retirement plans, RIA, RIA Compliance, securities, securities compliance, wealth management, wealth preservation
Tagged 401k, 401k compliance, 404c, 404c compliance, compliance, ERISA, evidence based investing, fiduciary, fiduciary investing, fiduciary law, FINRA, investment advisers, investment analysis tools, pension plans, portfolio optimization, retirement plans, RIA, RIA compliance, RIA risk management, risk management, securities compliance, suitability, wealth management, wealth preservation
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Avoiding ERISA’s #1 Fiduciary Liability “Gotcha”
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. – Aldous Huxley Fiduciary law is a combination of trust and agency law. The basic rule of fiduciary law is that a fiduciary must always put their customer’s/client’s best interests … Continue reading
Posted in 401k, 401k compliance, 401k investments, 404c, 404c compliance, fiduciary compliance, fiduciary law, investments, pension plans, retirement plans, wealth management, wealth preservation
Tagged 401k compliance, 404c, 404c compliance, asset allocation, ERISA, fiduciary, fiduciary investing, fiduciary law, FINRA, investment advisers, investment analysis tools, pension plans, portfolio optimization, retirement plans, suitability, wealth management, wealth preservation
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Investment Industry Has Some ‘Splaining to Do
“[B]rokers’ recommendations must be consistent with their customers’ “best interest.(1) “[A] central aspect of a broker-dealer’s duty of fair dealing is the suitability obligation, which generally requires a broker-dealer to make recommendations that are consistent with the best interests of … Continue reading
Posted in 401k, 401k compliance, 404c, 404c compliance, compliance, fiduciary compliance, fiduciary law, investments, pension plans, retirement plans, RIA, RIA Compliance, securities compliance, wealth management
Tagged 401k, 401k compliance, 404c, 404c compliance, compliance, ERISA, fiduciary, fiduciary investing, fiduciary law, FINRA, investment advisers, pension plans, retirement plans, RIA compliance, suitability, wealth management
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