Sky Blog
On March 30, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor (the DOL) published its heavily anticipated proposed rule entitled “Fiduciary Duties in Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives” (the Proposed Rule).[1] Over the years, sponsors of private funds and other investment vehicles …
With the U.S. Department of Labor’s recent proposed rule, Fiduciary Duties in Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives, retail investors’ access to private assets comes ever closer to reality, though not without controversy. The battle lines are unsurprising: Private asset managers …
401(k) accounts are where most Americans put their financial assets.1 President Trump appears determined to prod them to invest those accounts in “alternative investments,” most prominently, private equity. To that end, in Executive Order 14330, the president ordered the Department …
The backlash against environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) investing has been swift and fierce. More than 20 U.S. states have passed laws or taken administrative action targeting ESG considerations in asset management. Flows into ESG funds have slowed, and for …
On August 7, 2025, the Trump Administration released the heavily anticipated Executive Order, “Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors” (the “Executive Order”), which represents a significant development and a positive step toward facilitating investment by defined …
The District Court for the Northern District of Texas recently ruled that a company breached its fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) for permitting BlackRock’s inclusion as an investment manager of its employees’ retirement …
On Wednesday, November 6, 2024, major media outlets announced Donald J. Trump as the winner of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. This alert discusses the potential impact of Mr. Trump’s election on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) …
On April 23, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL” or “Department”) released its final fiduciary rule, marking the completion of its third attempt since 2010 to update the definition of what it means to be an investment advice fiduciary …
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 …
The U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) recently issued a final rule (the “Final Rule”) that seeks to clarify the circumstances under which a fiduciary subject to ERISA may consider climate change and other environmental, social …
In the last few years, there has been a dramatic increase in shareholder engagement on environmental and social issues. Consider two examples from 2021. Eighty-one percent of DuPont shareholders approved a proposal requiring the company to disclose how much plastic …
Last Thursday, the Supreme Court concluded its most tumultuous Term in recent memory. The Term was marked by a number of closely divided decisions on contentious issues ranging from President Biden’s vaccination mandate to gun rights to religious liberty. Anticipation …
In December 2021, As You Sow, a non-profit foundation promoting environmental and social corporate responsibility, filed shareholder proposals on behalf of Amazon.com and Comcast Corporation shareholders for action at each of their 2022 annual meetings. The Amazon proposal and …
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, …
Federal securities filings continued to slow during the second half of 2021. The volume of new securities cases filed in 2021 fell by 36% compared to 2020, and 51% compared to 2019. Nonetheless, federal and state securities laws continue to …
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 …
Hedge fund activism is a topic on which most law professors have closed their minds. They learned in student days that activist hedge funds are excellent agents of change that efficiently discipline managements at targeted firms and increase shareholder wealth. …
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 …