By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is a federal law that sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established retirement and health plans in private industry to provide protection for individuals in these plans. ERISA covers $7.6 Trillion in assets managed on behalf of 140 million American workers.
The cornerstone of ERISA is the responsibilities of fiduciaries. A fiduciary is anyone with discretionary control or authority over plan management or plan assets, for the administration of a plan, or anyone who provides investment advice to a plan for compensation or have any authority or responsibility to do so. Fiduciaries include plan trustees, plan administrators, and members of a plan’s investment committee.
Under the law the primary responsibility of fiduciaries is to run the plan solely in the interest of participants and beneficiaries and for the exclusive purpose of providing benefits and paying plan expenses.
That changed in 2022.
At 3 PM November 22, 2022 (the day before Thanksgiving), The U.S. Department of Labor stealthily announced a final rule that allows plan fiduciaries to consider climate change and other environmental, social and governance factors when they select retirement investments and exercise shareholder rights. This completely changes standard benefit plans for the American worker.
According to DOL Assistant Secretary for Employee Benefits Security Lisa M. Gomez “The rule announced today will make workers’ retirement savings and pensions more resilient by removing needless barriers, and ending the chilling effect created by the prior administration on considering environmental, social and governance factors in investments … Climate change and other environmental, social and governance factors can be useful for plan investors as they make decisions about how to best grow and protect the retirement savings of America’s workers.”
It’s not enough that billions of your tax dollars are wasted on social engineering, now they have access to loot trillions of your retirement dollars.
