Spence v. American Airlines: Expanding the Playing Field for Fiduciary Liability?

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reported that Wells Fargo bank was under investigation for practices in the bank’s retirement division. According to the article the investigation focuses on practices intended to move clients into more expensive individual retirement accounts when they retire or leave their jobs. The article also noted that the […]

Our last blog (Nature Abhors a Vacuum – and So Should Fiduciaries) discussed the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to invalidate rules, issued by the U.S. Department of Labor, for financial professionals who sell financial services and products to retirement plan participants. One part of the Court’s rationale was […]

The recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to invalidate the DOL’s fiduciary rules creates further confusion in an area that had already suffered from an excess of …confusion. A few things to note in considering this state of affairs: •      The 5th Circuit’s opinion goes to the core of key […]