The Fall 2021 issue of the American Bar Association’s scholarly journal, The Business Lawyer features an article by Professor William W. Bratton arguing that the “evolutionary erosion” theory that fiduciary obligation of corporate board members has been weakened over time does not apply to management self-dealing. He says that related party transactions involving the executives…
Tag: fiduciary
DOL’s New Proposed Rule on Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights
DOL/EBSA has a new proposed rule on ESG and proxy votes. Stay tuned for more information and our formal comment. NOTE: Comments due by December 13, 2021 and we will be up against an avalanche of opposition. The Department of Labor (Department) in this document proposes amendments to the Investment Duties regulation under Title I…
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…
DOL proposes rule to narrow scope of ERISA fiduciaries’ proxy voting
DOL/EBSA has followed up its outrageously unsupportable proposed rule on ESG investing (more than 95 percent of the more than 7000 comments strongly opposed) with an even more outrageously unsupportable proposed rule rolling back more than 30 years of settled law that all aspects of share ownership — the right to trade, to sue, and…
Jon Lukomnik Comment Letter to DOL/EBSA on ESG Rulemaking
Jon Lukomnik’s letter to DOL/EBSA about the proposed rule on ESG investing has been co-signed by distinguished academics and investment professionals, along with VEA’s Chair, Vice Chair, and President. Attention: Financial Factors in Selecting Plan Investment Proposed Regulation. To Whom It May Concern: We are writing in opposition to proposed rule RIN 1210-AB95. We believe…
DOL Proposal to Weaken Fiduciary Standards
Fact sheet from the Consumer Federation of America: On June 29th, the Trump Administration rolled out a new regulatory package for retirement investment advice that, if finalized, would allow brokers and insurers to siphon billions of dollars a year out of the retirement accounts of hard-working Americans, putting their ability to afford an independent and…
Nell Minow: Response to the Chamber of Commerce’s Outrageous Comment to DOL
VEA Vice Chair Nell Minow has submitted a comment to the Department of Labor on proxy advisory firms and proxy voting by pension fiduciaries. This is a follow-up to two previous letters on the issue and in response to a letter from the Chamber of Commerce calling for the same kinds of restrictions on proxy…
SEC Broker-Conflict Rules Face Wary Dems, States, and AARP
On June 5th, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved a final regulation that governs the conduct of broker-dealers and their advisors. The name of the guidance is Regulation Best Interest, known as Reg BI. Reg BI won’t apply until June 30, 2020, roughly a year from now, but it is already generating a lot of…
White House energy infrastructure order calls for ERISA, proxy voting review – Pensions & Investments
It will be very hard for DOL to make the case that raising ESG concerns is anything but a returns-based fiduciary calculation, but it is still extremely disappointing to see the level of corruption reach so deeply into the government. President Donald Trump ordered the Department of Labor to see whether retirement plans engaging with…
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