Employee Fiduciary

The American Retirement Association (ARA) — the national trade association representing roughly 40,000 retirement plan professionals — recently submitted its comment letter on the DOL's proposed investment selection rule. Unlike Employee Fiduciary, the ARA accepted the rule's direction with no apparent concerns about how it could negatively affect the workers it is supposed to protect.

In today's blog, our CEO Eric Droblyen — a longtime ARA member of more than 25 years — explains where he agrees with the ARA's recommendations and where he believes the group's defense of the rule quietly fails 401(k) participants:

- What the ARA gets right
- Where the ARA fails participants
- Four process arguments that don't hold up

For the rule to truly serve participants, the final version must close the CIT fee transparency gap, require meaningful crypto protections beyond disclosure, and give participants transparency rights that match the new fiduciary protections.

Read the full blog here:

What the ARA Gets Wrong about the DOL's Investment Selection Rule Why the American Retirement Association is wrong about the DOL's investment selection rule — and how a process-based defense quietly fails 401(k) participants.