Nevin's Data "Points"

A little more than a week ago, the U.S. Department of Labor unveiled its much-anticipated final ESG rule.  There’s a lot to unpack in that regulation (and the rest of the 236-pages that help explain its process and rationale), but here’s a few things that seem particularly important to note at the outset. There are some (important) things that did NOT change. First, and to my mind, foremost, the Labor Department noted that “The duties of prudence and loyalty require ERISA plan fiduciaries to focus on relevant risk-return factors and not subordinate the interests of participants and beneficiaries (such as by sacrificing investment returns or taking on additional investment risk) to objectives unrelated to the provision of benefits under the plan. But it also included an important clarification: “…the final rule amends the current regulation to make it clear that a fiduciary’s determination with respect to an investment or investment course of action must be based o...