Kathryn Solley and Linda Haynes Featured in Law360
"DOL Should Up ERISA Guidance: Attys"

Kathryn Solley and Linda Haynes were featured in the July 24, 2009 edition of Law360 in the article, "DOL Should Up ERISA Guidance: Attys." The article discussed how Kathy and Linda testified before the U.S. Department of Labor on refining their guidance on stable value funds so that Employee Retirement Income Security Act plan fiduciaries can better monitor and educate participants. According to the article, the attorneys told the department's ERISA Advisory Council that fiduciaries have been concerned about and interested in stable value funds since the economic meltdown of 2008.

Kathy explained that plan fiduciaries must "be armed with the right questions to ask" when selecting and monitoring stable value funds. Kathy also noted that plan fiduciaries need tools with which to investigate and evaluate the fund. However, she also commented that because selecting a stable value fund for a 401(k) plan includes considerations that can be unique to each plan, regulation by the department would be difficult to provide and may be even unduly restrictive. Instead, she recommended that the department should publish best practices for monitoring plan investment options.

Linda added that plan fiduciaries currently struggle with balancing participants' need for information about the funds with the possibility that their communication may trigger an event that allows the funds to impose withdrawal restrictions. She explained, "Official guidance from the department requiring participant disclosure of certain information about the funds could remedy that problem." Linda also recommended that the department consider requiring fiduciaries to provide summary profiles of each stable value fund, complete with information about the different types of securities in underlying fixed income portfolios.