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- Fiduciary Prudence Protocols: Proactive Fiduciary Risk Mitigation Strategies For Plan Sponsors and Other Investment Fiduciaries
- Quantifying Fiduciary Prudence, Part I: Artificial Intelligence as a Fiduciary Risk/Liability Mitigation Tool Under ERISA
- May It Please the Court: Closing Argument On Fiduciary Duty of Disclosure Under ERISA Section 404(a) and Section 78(3) of the Restatement (Third) of Trusts
- Who’s Overseeing the DOL and EBSA? DOL FAB 2026-01’s Fatal Flaw Is Actually a Fiduciary Trap for Unwary Plan Sponsors
- 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
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Tag Archives: fiduciary law
Fiduciary Prudence Protocols: Proactive Fiduciary Risk Mitigation Strategies For Plan Sponsors and Other Investment Fiduciaries
James W. Watkins, III, J.D., CFP EmeritusTM, AWMA®InvestSense, LLC These protocols synthesize the fiduciary standards reflected in Supreme Court ERISA decisions and the Restatement (Third) of Trusts. 1. Loyalty Protocol Every decision must be made solely in the interest of … Continue reading
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Tagged 401k, 401k compliance, compliance, ERISA, fiduciary law, fiduciary liability, fiduciary risk management
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Who’s Overseeing the DOL and EBSA? DOL FAB 2026-01’s Fatal Flaw Is Actually a Fiduciary Trap for Unwary Plan Sponsors
James W. Watkins, III, J.D., CFP EmeritusTM, AWMA®InvestSense, LLC APPELLATE CLOSING ARGUMENT OPPOSING FAB 2026-01 May it please the Court: At its core, this case presents a simple but critically consequential question: Can the Department of Labor lawfully encourage fiduciaries … Continue reading
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
James W. Watkins, III, J.D., CFP EmeritusTM, AWMA®InvestSense, LLC The issue before this Court is not whether procedural prudence matters under ERISA. It unquestionably does. The issue is whether the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) may lawfully transform procedural prudence … Continue reading
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Tagged compliance, ERISA, fiduciary, fiduciary investing, fiduciary law, Fiduciary litigation
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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
James W. Watkins, III, J.D., CFP EmeritusTM, AWMA®InvestSense, LLC Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”) may not transform generally accepted fiduciary concepts into categorical legal mandates untethered from statutory text, judicial precedent, or established trust-law principles. This appeal presents a fundamental … Continue reading
DOL/EBSA Field Assistance Bulletin 2026-01 Is Not Entitled to Judicial Deference Under The Loper Bright Decision
James W. Watkins, III, J.D., CFP EmeritusTM, AWMA®InvestSense, LLC In DOL/EBSA Field Assitance Bulletin 2026-01 (FAB 2026-01), the Department of Labor states its belief that its proposed legislation is entitled to legal deference. Nothing could be further from the truth. … Continue reading
Fatally Flawed: Why DOL Administrative Bulletin 2026-01 Will Not, and Should Not, Withstand Judicial Scrutiny
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DOL Bulletin 2026-01 Continue reading
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Tagged 401k, compliance, Congresss, fiduciary law, fiduciary liability
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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
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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
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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
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