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Michael P. Barry
By Michael P. Barry | 5/25/2022
Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series. The first installment appeared here.
In my last column, I argued that when ERISA diversification requirements are met, the only remaining prudence issue is price and that, regarding an asset (e.g., stock in a company) that is traded in a...
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By Michael P. Barry | 4/27/2022
The Biden Department of Labor (DOL) has published a series of pronouncements—revised regulations on ESG, a “Supplemental Statement” on private equity, a Compliance Assistance Release on “Cryptocurrencies,” and a request for information on “Climate-Related Financial Risk”—all raising or “clarifying...
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By Michael P. Barry | 4/13/2022
I’d like to start what is likely to be a series of columns on the possibility that we are or may be moving to a provider-based retirement benefit system.
What problems might be solved by such a change? And what challenges might be created? I want to begin with a consideration of our current...
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By Michael P. Barry | 1/21/2022
As the new year begins, here are the big retirement policy challenges we’re facing, in my view. Note that these are our long-run problems—as opposed to, say, clarifying the rules on ESG investments or for fiduciaries who provide advice.
The Challenge of the Transitions
We have gone from a Baby...
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By Michael P. Barry | 12/2/2021
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) has risen steadily throughout 2021, with prices in October 2021 6.2% higher than at the beginning of the year.
We have all been pretty much ignoring inflation as a retirement savings/income risk for some time. Understandably, since inflation for the last decade has...
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By Michael P. Barry | 10/20/2021
The possibility of needing long-term care—basically, needing to live in a nursing home or needing in-home nursing services—is a significant, and largely unpredictable, retirement security challenge.
The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) projects a baseline estimate (assuming no change in...
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By Michael P. Barry | 9/28/2021
Retirement savings—in an IRA, a 401(k) plan, or a defined benefit plan—is, in the end, a project that involves turning present income, via savings and investment, into future income. As such, it inevitably involves the capital markets. And, indeed, it is often hard to sort out whether any...
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By Michael P. Barry | 8/25/2021
In the early 1980s, I worked at a very big company that introduced one of the first 401(k) plans. To give the plan an appealing “brand,” the company called it The Capital Accumulation Plan.
I think that is a pretty accurate (and effective) way of describing how a lot of employees, especially...
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By Michael P. Barry | 7/20/2021
While Hughes involves 403(b) plans, the issues in it are effectively identical to those in the 401(k) fee litigation that has plagued our industry for nearly two decades.
On July 2, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review Seventh Circuit’s decision affirming dismissal of plaintiffs’ case for...
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By Michael P. Barry | 3/9/2021
How do/should we “value” environmental and social governance (ESG) investments? Here’s how the Department of Labor (DOL) summarizes its final ESG regulation:
“The amendments [revising ERISA fiduciary rules to restrict ESG investments] require plan fiduciaries to select investments and investment...
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By Michael P. Barry | 12/9/2015
Since 2010 ushered in an era of nearly total legislative gridlock, domestic tax and spending policy has been driven by only two things: jobs and the deficit.
Imagine a bus stop with two lines. The first is a very short one that includes anyone with a proposal that is likely either to (1) “create”...
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