Fred Reish Quoted in Employee Benefit Adviser and ThinkAdvisor on New Fiduciary Rule Appellate Ruling

Los Angeles partner Fred Reish was quoted in two recent articles regarding the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to vacate the Department of Labor (DOL)’s fiduciary rule.

The first article, “What the New Fiduciary Appeals Ruling Means for Employers,” from Employee Benefit Adviser, explores the uncertainty that the decision has prompted for plan sponsors and others in the industry who have attempted to comply with the rule. Despite the appeals court’s decision to vacate the rule, Fred and other industry experts say it should be business as usual for plan sponsors. Fred advised that plan sponsors should “assume the fiduciary rule does apply until you are definitively told otherwise…If you’ve been looking at everything through the lens of the new rule since June 9, then just keep doing that.” Fred also noted that the case may be reviewed en banc, since only three of the Fifth Circuit judges were involved in the opinion to vacate the fiduciary rule.

The second article, “DOL Fiduciary Rule Vacated. Now What?” originally appeared in ThinkAdvisor and was also mentioned in the April 5, 2018, SIFMA SmartBrief. In this article, Fred again addressed what the appellate court’s ruling means for the fiduciary rule’s fate. He said that the DOL “needs to decide whether to request an en banc review by the full 5th Circuit, to file a petition with the Supreme Court, or to drop the matter.”

Read “What the New Fiduciary Appeals Ruling Means for Employers” in Employee Benefit Adviser (Subscription required).

Read “DOL Fiduciary Rule Vacated. Now What?” in ThinkAdvisor.