Here are five suggested articles to read this weekend:
1. Cryptocurrency Comes to Retirement Accounts – While debate continues to rage over the efficacy of investing Bitcoin and other so-called cryptocurrencies in retirement accounts, platforms are increasingly available to make it happen. The latest, Equity Trust Company, announced that it has launched its digital asset platform. (401kspecialistmag.com)
2. Are Your Vendors Fiduciaries? Why Does It Matter? Ask The Lawyer – Using non-fiduciary plan providers for services or investing may cause a plan committee to assume more retirement plan risk than the plan sponsor wants to accept. (401ktv.com)
3. Public Comment Letter on the SEC Advice Rule and Separating Advice from Sales – Earlier this year, the SEC proposed its own long-awaited overhaul of the regulation of broker-dealers and investment advisers. At the time, the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule was still the law of the land, and the pressure was on the SEC to “harmonize” – both the SEC’s regulation with the DoL’s version. (Nerd’s Eye View | Kitces.com)
4. States Start Knitting a Patchwork of Best Interest Fiduciary Regulations – With the judicial defeat of the Obama-era DOL fiduciary rule hanging in the air, individual states are moving to establish their own best interest regulations for the sale and service of investment products; attorneys warn that more piecemeal regulation is likely, as are lawsuits to test some complex ERISA preemption issues. (planadviser.com)
5. New Policies Needed to Empower Plan Sponsors to Think Outside the Box – Plan sponsors and American employees are locked into an antiquated retirement system that has not kept pace with changing demographics — and according to industry experts, US lawmakers and new strategies can help. (benefitnews.com)
