EBSA Announcement Signals Shift in Enforcement Emphasis

The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) released a new field assistance bulletin (FAB) that signals it will be shifting course in terms of its enforcement efforts. The FAB identifies four priorities: (1) focusing on the most egregious conduct and the most significant harm, (2) ensuring the EBSA is not "regulating by enforcement", instead focusing on fairness, prior notice and clarity, (3) ensuring that senior officials review all critical enforcement actions and (4) committing to enforcement that is both timely and responsive. Most expect that this enforcement shift will result in an EBSA that is more focused on self-dealing, undisclosed conflicts of interest, misuse of assets and other actions that harm plan participants, instead of focusing on the duty of prudence and more technical errors and mistakes in the procedural process that are made in good faith. Read more: Q 3986