In December of 2019, before COVID was in our daily vocabulary, President Trump signed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act. The SECURE Act sought to increase access to retirement savings accounts and to protect American workers from outliving their retirement assets.

It has been widely reported that the Department of Labor (DOL) has published its new Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) final regulation. Depending on one’s perspective, that characterization ranges from somewhat accurate to quite inaccurate.

As we work closely with plan sponsors and participants in a challenging environment, we encounter common themes on the regulatory, plan administration, M&A, and data security fronts. We’ll provide fiduciary education around those items and an update on potential regulatory and legislative changes coming soon.

We’ve not been so lucky in 2022, as inflation has run rampant, equity markets have struggled mightily, and bond markets have offered no place to hide.