Sky Blog
On December 11, President Trump signed an Executive Order titled “Protecting American Investors from Foreign‑Owned and Politically‑Motivated Proxy Advisors” (the “Order”). The Order focuses on the “enormous influence” of proxy advisory firms, particularly Institutional Shareholder Services, Inc. (“ISS”) …
On November 3, 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) published a proposed regulation (the “Proposed Rule”) expanding the definition of “investment advice” for purposes of determining which parties are subject to fiduciary status under …
In recent years, few topics within the U.S. Department of Labor’s (the “DOL”) purview have garnered as much interest as the potential consideration of environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) factors by fiduciaries of plans subject to the U.S. Employee Retirement …
Few constituencies benefited more from the election of Joe Biden than the socially-responsible investor community, which saw the most-hostile presidential administration replaced by the most supportive.[1] The point is best illustrated by the departure of Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, …
On October 14, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) issued proposed regulations that represent the first step in meeting President Biden’s directive to revise or rescind the recent Trump-era rules addressing a fiduciary’s duties under Section 404 of …
Climate change disclosure ranks among the priorities of Gary Gensler, the new chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. With the rapid reallocation of capital to green investments – characterized as a “tectonic shift” by BlackRock[1] and a “frenzy” …
Recently, workers at Amazon dealt what has been called a “decisive” and “crushing” blow to organized labor,[1] with their proposed union receiving less than 30 percent of the votes cast, according to the federal vote counters overseeing the …
In the wake of the U.S. Department of Labor’s new rule on “Financial Factors in Selecting Plan Investments,” adopted last November and effective as of January 12, 2021, some ERISA fiduciaries and their advisers have expressed concern about the permissibility …
On Wednesday, March 10, after engaging in conversations with stakeholders, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration issued an enforcement policy statement in which it declined to enforce two DOL rules put in place by the Trump administration …
Just before year end, the Department of Labor finalized its new rules on ESG investing and voting for retirement and pension funds. The rules sharply restrict the ability of the fiduciaries of retirement and pension funds to make investments based …
Late in the afternoon of the Friday before Election Day, the Department of Labor finalized a rule that requires pension and retirement plan fiduciaries to consider only financial interests when investing plan funds. On its face, the rule seems anodyne. …
On October 30, 2020, the US Department of Labor (DOL) published Financial Factors in Selecting Plan Investments (the Rule) and a related Fact Sheet, a codification of the spirit, if not the exact words, of a controversial proposal issued …
On October 3, The Shareholder Commons and B Lab submitted their comment on a recent new rule (the “Proxy Proposal”) proposed by the Department of Labor (the “DOL.”) The Proxy Proposal would limit independent proxy voting by pension trustees. It …
The Department of Labor (DOL) has launched a major attack on investor protection and shareholder rights in the last three months. In three successive strikes against long-standing practices of ERISA fiduciaries, the DOL has created disorder and confusion. Its actions …
BlackRock, an investment adviser that primarily markets and manages index funds to millions of passive investors around the globe, has become a leading shareholder activist. Based on the extremely large amount of assets it has under management ($7.3 trillion), its …
On July 22, the SEC finalized a sweeping rule change to enhance the transparency around the role of proxy advisers. This follows an earlier proposal to reform the process for including shareholder proposals in a company’s proxy statement.[1] These …
With shareholder proposals regarding ESG and sustainability matters becoming the most common kind of proposal, proxy advisory firm ISS marketing a new “Environmental & Social QualityScore” product for rating public companies, asset managers developing ESG-related guidelines and voting policies, and …
In a March 15, 2018 decision in Chamber of Commerce of the United States v. United States Department of Labor, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated in its entirety the so-called “Fiduciary Rule” promulgated …
One of the most disputed policy initiatives of the Obama administration was the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule, which subjects brokers and other financial professionals managing retirement accounts to a fiduciary duty to avoid conflicts and act in the best …
The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) final rule significantly expanding when a person is considered to be a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code (Code) as a result of providing …