Three things to look at before we reach Q4.
A fiduciary calendar tells you what to file. But as we have hit the halfway mark this year, we wanted to look at three developments that are worth taking a deeper look at. Coming out of 2025 and the first half of 2026 brought a lot of new regulation and more scrutiny on benefit compliance.
1. The DOL wrote you a documentation template
In March, the Department of Labor proposed a rule creating a process-based safe harbor for selecting plan investments. Most coverage framed it as the private-equity-in-your-401(k) rule, since it grew out of last year’s executive order on alternative assets.
That positioning of a pretty big change buries the lead. The global law firm, Gibson Dunn notes, the safe harbor rule applies to all investment selections, not just alternatives. It spells out what a fiduciary should weigh and document including performance, fees, liquidity, valuation, benchmarks, complexity.
The proposed rule is a direct view into the DOL’s opinion of how any fund decision should be documented, whether or not you ever add an alternative to your menu. The agency is aiming to finalize by year-end. There is no reason to wait in order to implicate a plan and make sure you are documenting.
2. The health plan lawsuits are losing on a technicality
The prescription-drug fiduciary suits against Johnson & Johnson, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan have not gone well for plaintiffs. That’s less reassuring than it sounds. The dismissals largely turned on standing, and they’re being appealed.
The more useful signal is in Stern v. JPMorgan. The law firm Groom Law Group reviewed the case and noted the court threw out the fiduciary-breach claims because plaintiffs were really challenging plan design, which an employer decides as a settlor rather than a fiduciary. They couldn’t recast that as a failure to monitor costs.
That distinction cuts in employers’ favor. What you cover is a business decision. How you selected and monitor the vendor administering it is a fiduciary one. The employers carrying more exposure are those that can’t produce an RFP file, a fee benchmark, or committee minutes for their PBM contract.
In other words, the document that defends you is the same file that tells you whether you’re overpaying. So again…always monitor and document.
3. Mental health parity
A lot of employers heard that regulators paused enforcement of the 2024 mental health parity rules and reasonably took it as breathing room. The actual statement shows that relief only covers the parts of the 2024 rule that were new, and the agencies were clear the underlying legal requirements still apply. You likely still need to prepare from a fiduciary perspective.
The comparative analysis or the written document showing that the limits you put on mental health care, like prior authorization or network standards, aren’t stricter than the ones on medical care. That comes from the statute, not the 2024 rule, so it never paused.
If your answer to where your written document is that “our carrier has one,” ask for a copy and read it. Much better to find the gaps yourself than to find them when a regulator asks.
Two dates to also keep an eye on out of these regulators. Medicare Part D creditable coverage notices go out before October 15. And your yearly confirmation that your contracts don’t stop you from seeing cost and quality data is due December 31.
What to focus on now?
Nothing above requires spending more money on benefits if you are already offering solid benefits to your teams. What has changed though is how much of your defense, and your leverage with vendors, now rests on a documented process that you can produce on demand.
That’s some work worth doing before Q4. The better benefits moving forward include the better-evidenced ones.
Read the full detail: Consider reading these complete articles for more on these updates DOL Proposes Safe Harbor for 401(k) Plans; What’s Next In Health Plan Fees; DOL final rule on requirements for healthcare.
