U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin has proposed new legislation that would reverse a final rule from the U.S. Department of Labor to limit retirement plans from voting on corporate proxies and undermine workers’ voice in the public companies where they invest. In August, Trump’s Labor Department proposed a rule to discourage ERISA plans from voting their…
Tag: Department of Labor
Comment Letter to DOL/EBSA on Proxy Voting from Jon Lukomnik, Keith Johnson, and other Experts
VEA Chair Robert A.G. Monks and Vice Chair Nell Minow signed this letter (in addition to their own letter) along with 14 other experts. The full letter is below. An excerpt [footnotes omitted]. This letter is written in opposition to the above proposed rule by 16 professionals with more than 400 years of combined experience…
CII Letter to DOL/EBSA on the Proxy Voting Proposal
The Council of Institutional Investors has filed a comment objecting to the proposed rule form DOL/EBSA on proxy voting by ERISA fiduciaries. The full comment is below. An excerpt [footnotes omitted]: DOL has not provided a persuasive rationale for the Proposed Rule. In fact, the Proposed Rule is premised on fundamentally flawed assumptions about shareholder…
US Senate/Congressional Letter Condemning DOL/EBSA Proposal On Proxy Voting by ERISA Fiduciaries
Twenty U.S. Senators and Members of Congress, including Elizabeth Warren, Dick Durbin, Tammy Baldwin, Patty Murray, Bernie Sanders, and Sherrod Brown, and Maxine Waters have sent a very strong comment letter to EBSA/DOL criticizing the proposal on proxy voting by ERISA fiduciaries in the strongest terms. The full letter is below. An excerpt: The proposal…
VEA Comment to DOL/EBSA on Proxy Voting
October 2, 2020 Jeanne Klinefelter Wilson Acting Assistant Secretary Employee Benefits Security Administration United States Department of Labor 200 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20210 RE: RIN 1210-AB91 Dear Acting Assistant Secretary Wilson, In the long, dismaying history of regulatory capture, when agencies set up to provide oversight instead issue rules entrenching and subsidizing corporate insiders,…
Fidelity, BlackRock Reject Trump Limits on 401(k) ESG Investing – Bloomberg
The world’s largest asset managers are speaking out against a Trump administration plan that would make it more difficult for them to incorporate environmental, social and governance factors when making investment decisions, a move that could limit green investing in 401(k) plans. Fidelity Investments wrote in an 11-page letter to the U.S. Department of Labor that the…
VEA Vice Chair Quoted on Despicable DOL/EBSA Proposal Limiting Proxy Voting Financial Times
Trump administration targets ESG. (Yet) again. The US Department of Labor has taken another swipe at ESG investments by moving to make it more difficult for retirement plan fiduciaries to vote on shareholder proposals that are not explicitly linked to company performance. With the proposed rule released on Monday, the DoL (led by Eugene Scalia)…
Overwhelming Opposition to Proposed Regulation Limiting the Use of ESG in Retirement Plans | Morningstar
John Hale has an excellent analysis of the comments on DOL/EBSA’s proposed rule on ESG, with a run-down of the consistent themes: no evidence to support the need for a rule and lots of evidence against. Of 229 comments from investment professionals, 94% were opposed to the proposed rule, only 2% were in favor, and…
Supplemental Comment to EBSA/DOL on ESG
August 17, 2020 Assistant Secretary Preston Rutledge EBSA Department of Labor200 Constitution Ave, NW, Ste S-2524 Washington DC 20210 RE: RIN 1210-AB95 NPRM: Financial Factors in Selecting Plan Investment Dear Assistant Secretary Rutledge, This is a supplement to our earlier comment to reflect recent developments and respond to a claim made in one comment. While we disagree…
U.S. Department of Labor Proposes New Investment Duties Rule | U.S. Department of Labor
The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a proposed rule that would update and clarify the Department of Labor’s investment duties regulation. The rule is intended to provide clear regulatory guideposts for plan fiduciaries in light of recent trends involving environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing. Periodically over the last 30 years, the Department has…
ValueEdge Advisors 