With 401(k) litigation increasing, plan advisors and plan sponsors need to know the latest laws as well as strategies attorneys are using to sue employers and advisors. BenefitsPRO's legal coverage includes news, analysis and updates on cases.
Investors including nuns who manage an order's retirement funds asked Wells Fargo to produce evidence that its incentive programs are aligned with clients' interests.
The SEC says Ameriprise did not ascertain whether the clients were eligible for the waived sales fees and did not disclose that the higher sales loads would negatively impact investment returns.
In effect, the DOL could craft a new sellers' exemption that says an advisor or broker is in compliance with the fiduciary rule if they are in compliance with the standards ultimately produced by the SEC.
About 1,800 customers of Ameriprise paid roughly $1.8 million in unnecessary front-loaded sales charges and trails on mutual funds, according to the SEC.
A report found that the Social Security Administration not only lacked a way to alert employees as to when delaying benefits was in an applicant's best interest, but even when they knew it was, employees were misadvising them.
The fiduciary rule has only been partially implemented but it's already discouraged annuity recommendations to qualified retirement accounts, according to LIMRA.
A hack left the operator of a now-defunct cryptocurrency platform without enough bitcoins to cover what he owed users, prompting him to lie to regulators, prosecutors said.