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Recent Posts
- 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
- Is the DOL/EBSA Trying to Serve Two Masters? ERISA Section 404(a)’s Independent Investigation and Evaluation Requirements and the DOL/EBSA Proposed Rule on Alternative Investments
- Much Ado About Nothing?: The DOL’s New Alternative Investment Rule vs. the Administrative Procedure Act
- Reasserting ERISA’s Private Enforcement Design: A Rebuttal to EBSA’s “Frivolous Litigation” Narrative
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Tag Archives: 401k
Fatally Flawed: Why DOL Administrative Bulletin 2026-01 Will Not, and Should Not, Withstand Judicial Scrutiny
ERISA
fiduciary litigation
fiduciary liability
404a
plan sponsor
401k
EBSA
DOL Bulletin 2026-01 Continue reading
Posted in fiduciary compliance
Tagged 401k, compliance, fiduciary law, fiduciary liability, Congresss
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Terminal Wealth: The True Fiduciary Prudence Paradigm with Regard to the In-Plan Annuity Scam
James W. Watkins, III, J.D., CFP EmeritusTM, AWMA®InvestSense, LLC A sound evaluation of fiduciary prudence must ultimately be anchored in outcomes, not just process—and in the context of long-term financial decision-making, the most meaningful outcome is terminal wealth. Fiduciaries are … Continue reading
Is the DOL/EBSA Trying to Serve Two Masters? ERISA Section 404(a)’s Independent Investigation and Evaluation Requirements and the DOL/EBSA Proposed Rule on Alternative Investments
Is the DOL and EBSA trying to Serve Two Masters? The DOL’s proposed rule for alyternative investments suggests the answer is “yes,” given the known lack of transparency associaes with such products. Worse yet, it has been suggested that alternative … Continue reading
Posted in fiduciary compliance
Tagged 401k, ERISA, fiduciary law, fiduciary liability, fiduciarylitigation, plansponsor, retirement plans
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Much Ado About Nothing?: The DOL’s New Alternative Investment Rule vs. the Administrative Procedure Act
James W. Watkins, III, J.D., CFP EmeritusTM, AWMA®InvestSense, LLC When the DOL announced the relases of its new alternative investments rule, we quickly advised out fiduciary risk minimization clients to simply ignore it, as it failed our basic two-step fiduciary … Continue reading
Posted in fiduciary compliance
Tagged 401k, EBSA, ERISA, ERISA litigation Congress, fiduciary law, history, news, plan sponsors, retirement plans, Supreme Court
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When Income Is Not Enough: Why the Continued Inclusion of In-Plan Annuities May Breach ERISA Duties When Compared to Capital-Preserving Income Alternatives and Strategies
James W. Watkins, III, J.D., CFP EmeritusTM, AWMA®InvestSense, LLC This post provides a fiduciary prudence analysis comparing a $100,000 non-SPIA immediate annuity paying 7% annually to a rolling / laddered 10-year U.S. Treasury note strategy yielding 4%, evaluated through terminal … Continue reading
The Active Management Value Ratio as a Cost-Benefit Framework: Integrating AI into Fiduciary Prudence Analysis
James W. Watkins, III, J.D., CFP EmeritusTM, AWMA®InvestSense, LLC I. Executive SummarySeveral years ago, I created a simple metric, the Active Management Value Ratio™ (AMVR). Since studies have shown that people are more visually oriented than verbally oriented, the AMVR … Continue reading
Battle of the Best Interests – Whose Are the EBSA and the DOL Supposed to Serve, and Whose Are They Really Serving?
ThesisThe Employee Benefit Security Administration’s (EBSA) recent shift to interpreting ERISA in terms of procedural prudence to the exclusion of substantive trust law is inconsistent with the stated purpopse and goals of ERISA, as revealed in the Act’s legislative history, … Continue reading
Posted in fiduciary compliance, fiduciary duty, fiduciary prudence, fiduciary prudence, fiduciary law, fiduciary liability, ERISA, fiduciary litigation
Tagged 401k, ERISA, ERISA litigation, fiduciary, fiduciary investing, fiduciary law, fiduciary liability, Fiduciary litigation, plan sponsor, retirement plans
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Fair Dinkum: A Critique of the EBSA’s Amicus Brief in Pizarro v. Home Depot
James W. Watkins, III, J.D., CFP EmeritusTM, AWMA® THESIS THE BURDEN OF PROOF ON CAUSATION PROPERLY RESTS WITH THE FIDUCIARY DUE TO ERISA’S REMEDIAL PURPOSE AND STRUCTURAL INFORMATION ASYMMETRY I. ERISA’s Remedial Purpose Requires Burden Allocation That Enables, Not Defeats, … Continue reading
Implications of Section 78(3) of the Restatement (Third) of Trusts and the Expanding “Knew or Should Have Known” Liability Standard in the Era of AI
The fiduciary duty of loyalty, as delineated in Section 78(3) of the Restatement (Third) of Trusts, imposes a stringent standard on fiduciaries, including plan sponsors and investment fiduciaries. The language “knew or should have known” underscores the expectation that fiduciaries … Continue reading
Closing Argument: Humble Arithmetic, Common Sense, and Fiduciary Liability vs. In-Plan Annuities
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” – John Adams [C]onsistent with fiduciaries’ obligations to choose economically superior investments….[P]lan fiduciaries … Continue reading
Posted in ERISA, ERISA litigation, fiduciary responsibility, fiduciary prudence, fiduciary duties, fiduciary litigation, 401k, 401k plans, plan sponsor, plan sponsors, fiduciary law, fiduciary liability
Tagged 401k, 404c compliance, ERISA, fiduciary law, Fiduciary prudence, fiduciary responsibility, fiduciary riskmanagement, plan sponsor
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