New Proposed Fiduciary Rules Could Significantly Impact the Marketing of Private Investment Funds to ERISA Plans and IRA Investors

The Department of Labor recently proposed rules expanding the circumstances under which a person will be considered to be a fiduciary within the meaning of ERISA. If adopted as proposed, the rules would effectively limit the marketing of private investment funds to large ERISA plans with at least 100 participants or $100 million in assets, and would make it very difficult for IRA investors to invest at all in many private investment funds.

The DOL has requested comments on the proposed rules no later than July 6, 2015, and has not indicated when the rules would become effective.