Bill > HR2988

This bill, titled the "Protecting Prudent Investment of Retirement Savings Act," aims to enhance retirement investor protections by amending the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), a law that sets standards for most voluntarily established retirement plans and health plans in the private sector. Key provisions include clarifying that retirement plan fiduciaries, those entrusted with managing plan assets, must prioritize financial factors (pecuniary factors) when making investment decisions, meaning they should focus on how an investment is expected to impact risk and return, and can only consider non-pecuniary factors, which are those not directly related to financial gain, if they cannot distinguish between investment options based on financial factors alone and can document how the non-pecuniary factor aligns with participants' retirement interests. Additionally, the bill prohibits fiduciaries from subordinating participants' retirement income or financial benefits to other objectives or sacrificing investment returns to promote non-pecuniary goals, though it allows for investment options that promote non-pecuniary benefits in individual account plans if other fiduciary requirements are met and they are not default investment options. The bill also mandates that fiduciaries must select, monitor, and retain service providers without regard to race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and clarifies that fiduciaries have a duty to manage shareholder rights, such as voting proxies, prudently and solely in the economic interest of plan participants and beneficiaries, requiring them to maintain records of their voting activities and not subordinate financial interests to non-pecuniary objectives. Furthermore, for retirement plans offering individual accounts where participants can choose investments, this bill requires that before a participant directs funds into an investment that is not a "designated investment alternative" (meaning it hasn't been prudently selected and monitored by a plan fiduciary), they must receive a notice explaining the differences in risk, fees, and potential returns compared to designated options, along with a hypothetical illustration of potential account growth, and the Comptroller General will study and report on the returns generated by these non-designated investment arrangements.

Education, Health and Social Services

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/2988/all-info