Bloomberg BNA Pension & Benefits Daily
By Daniel S. Sommers and S. Douglas Bunch
The Bloomberg BNA Pensions & Benefits Daily article can be read here.
While plaintiffs’ securities lawyers are often vilified by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, elected officials of the Republican party, and other persons and entities associated with the political right, the use of private attorneys to help enforce the nation’s securities laws is actually in synch with a number of the core beliefs typically advocated by those groups.
This use of private attorneys to protect the public constitutes a classic outsourcing of a traditional government function to the private sector, substituting an entrepreneurial group of businesses (private law firms), both motivated and restricted by their need to generate enough revenue to cover their costs, for government employees acting as regulatory enforcers. It also gives investors—including Taft-Hartley pension plans—that most American of privileges: the ability to defend themselves and their property without relying on the government to initiate action.
Bloomberg BNA: Securities Regulation & Law Report
Michael Eisenkraft
4/7/2014
Michael Eisenkraft, the author of this piece, is a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC. Based in Cohen Milstein’s New York office, he is a member of its Securities Fraud/Investor Protection and Commercial Contingency practice groups.
In what was a surprise to many who have come to believe the agenda of the Roberts Court is to completely eviscerate the class action as a vehicle for obtaining relief for consumers on a large scale, the United States Supreme Court has passed up the opportunity to further chip away at the viability of class actions by denying certiorari in In re Whirlpool Corp. Front-Loading Washer Products Liab. Litig., 722 F.3d 838 (6th Cir. 2013), and Butler v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 727 F.3d 796 (7th Cir. 2013). The Court’s inaction is being viewed as a signal that consumer class actions based on product defects are still viable in this ever-narrowing field of law.
It is an oversimplification to say that trustees have a difficult job. If you do the job right, it is inevitable that some people are going to be upset with you. If you do the job wrong, you could be in breach of your fiduciary duty. At a recent conference, a long-time trustee commented that “it isn’t fun anymore.” I don’t know if it ever was “fun” but I do know what he was saying. These are incredibly challenging times and that makes the already difficult job of a trustee even harder.
Read Ethics and Fiduciary Issues for Pension Trustees in a Changing Environment.
Guardrails are installed along America’s roadways for the protection of motorists. Guardrails, if properly designed, keep vehicles from straying off the roadway into dangerous places and, when impacted at the end points, should absorb or dissipate energy from the crash and give way, rather than remaining rigid and potentially intruding into the accident vehicle. But, unfortunately, there are tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of guardrails that will not achieve this purpose either due to poor design or improper installation.
Senior financial abuse is a problem that does, or will, affect all of us. We may be the victim, the victim could be a relative or a friend, or we could simply just feel the effect, through higher taxes or fees at financial institutions, of the billions of dollars lost to senior financial abuse every year. Dodd–Frank recognizes that problem, but the solutions it offers, while useful, are too small to stop or even retard the growth of a problem of this magnitude. We need to do more; we need to transform the relationship between financial service providers and their customers from wary antagonism to trusted, well-trained protectors and guardians. The three reforms suggested above should contribute significantly to bring that about—and they also enlist the medical profession, a set of trained eyes, to help see signs of trouble. It does not matter from where these reforms emanate. They could come from the federal governments, the states, or even perhaps the codes of conduct of professional organizations, but they should be enacted.
University of Cincinnati Law Review: Vol. 81: Iss. 2, Article 5.
One need only look at the headlines on any given day to find a story involving ethical misconduct. The settings of these stories range from corporate board rooms to athletic playing fields to government agencies on the federal, state, and local level—and pension funds are certainly not immune.
Read Ethics and Fiduciary Issues for Public Pension Plans: Lessons Learned.
As joyous as the holiday season is, every parent of young children experiences some anxiety over children’s toys in December. Will your children receive too many toys, cluttering up the house? Will your children like their new toys and play with them for more than 5 minutes? Did your children receive toys that are bound to be a nuisance because they are too loud or too messy? But the number one concern every parent should have is whether the toys their children are playing with are safe. And, unfortunately, due to the lack of transparency regarding the use of harmful toxins in the manufacture of toys, that is often a difficult question to answer.