The U.S. Department of Labor on May 28 rescinded 2022 guidance that warned fiduciaries against including cryptocurrency in 401(k) retirement plans, reversing a Biden-era policy that critics said discouraged innovation in retirement investing.
The 2022 compliance release had advised plan fiduciaries to exercise “extreme care” before adding crypto assets. The department now says that this language deviated from the standards of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which lays out fiduciary duties to act prudently and solely in the interest of plan participants.
“The Biden administration’s Department of Labor made a choice to put their thumb on the scale,” Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a release. “We’re rolling back this overreach and making it clear that investment decisions should be made by fiduciaries, not DC bureaucrats.”…