SIFMA and SIFMA AMG Submit Comment Letter on DOL Proposed Rule on Fiduciary Duties in Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives

Washington, DC, June 1, 2026 – SIFMA and SIFMA AMG today submitted a comment letter to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) in response to the Department’s proposed rule on Fiduciary Duties in Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives (RIN 1210-AC38). The comment letter supports the Department’s asset-neutral, process-based approach while offering targeted recommendations to strengthen the final rule and better enable plan fiduciaries to expand retirement savers’ access to a broader range of investment opportunities, including private market assets.

“The proposal reflects ERISA’s fundamental principles by emphasizing the importance of a prudent fiduciary process when selecting advisors and investment products, while preserving broad discretion for plan fiduciaries to determine which options best serve the interests of their plans and participants,” SIFMA wrote in the letter.

The letter offers recommendations to improve the proposed rule’s practical workability and to advance the Department’s stated goal of reducing frivolous litigation risk that stifles plan sponsor innovation and ultimately harms plan participants, including:

• Strengthen fiduciary discretion in the safe harbor by clarifying that fiduciaries have deference to determine which factors are relevant to their specific plan design, participant demographics, and investment menu architecture, and that deviation from the safe harbor does not create a presumption of imprudence.
• Harmonize conflict language with SEC and other existing regulatory standards to reflect that potential conflicts are already significantly regulated and require mitigation and disclosure, rather than being treated as categorically prohibited.
• Adopt asset-class neutral liquidity requirements by removing references to SEC Rule 22e-4 and instead requiring that plan fiduciaries confirm that investment managers have controls and procedures reasonably designed to identify, manage, and mitigate liquidity risk.
• Recognize Collective Investment Trusts (CITs) as well-regulated vehicles subject to ERISA, OCC oversight, and state regulation, and ensure they receive equal treatment in the safe harbor’s examples alongside mutual funds.
• Clarify that examples are guideposts only, not the exclusive means of satisfying the safe harbor, to preserve flexibility for fiduciaries evaluating innovative or newly developed investment products.
• Modernize Class Exemption PTE 77-4 to reflect decades of market evolution and expand its scope beyond open-end mutual funds to encompass other investment vehicles.

“Addressing the issues outlined above would significantly improve the proposed rule on Fiduciary Duties in Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives and its intended purpose of providing clarity and confidence to plan fiduciaries,” the letter concluded.

The full letter can be found here: https://www.sifma.org/advocacy/letters/fiduciary-duties-in-selecting-designated-investment-alternatives

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SIFMA is the voice of the U.S. securities industry. We represent the broker-dealers, banks and asset managers whose nearly 1 million employees provide access to the capital markets, raising over $2.5 trillion for businesses and municipalities in the U.S., serving clients with over $20 trillion in assets and managing more than $67 trillion in assets for individual and institutional clients including mutual funds and retirement plans. SIFMA, with offices in New York and Washington, D.C., is the U.S. regional member of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA). For more information, visit http://www.sifma.org.

SIFMA AMG brings the asset management community together to provide views on U.S. and global policy and to create industry best practices. SIFMA AMG’s members represent U.S. and global asset management firms that manage more than 50% of global AUM.