The Department of Labor announced in a new court filing in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that it will craft a new rule to replace the SWACCA-supported, Biden-era Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights final rule. This final rule returned to the old “economically equivalent” tie breaker standard for selecting between investments that offer equivalent risks and returns. The final rule also affirmed the position that SWACCA advocated throughout a two-year advocacy campaign that the creation of union jobs and contributions to the plan are collateral benefits trustees may use to select between two equivalent investments.
In its court filing, DOL said that it “has determined that it will engage in a new rulemaking on the subject of the challenged rule” and that this rulemaking “will appear on the Department’s Spring Regulatory Agenda, and the department intends to move through the rulemaking process as expeditiously as possible.”