Publication Date
2016
Journal
Cardozo Law Review De-Novo
Abstract
In Interpretive Bulletin 2015-01 (IB 2015-01), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) renewed the now two-decades old battle over “economically targeted investments” (ETIs). As a matter of statutory interpretation, IB 2015-01, like its predecessors, is unpersuasive. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) requires plan trustees to invest “solely” to provide participants’ retirement benefits. A trustee who invests in ETIs violates this statutory obligation by pursuing collateral economic benefits for persons other than plan participants. As a matter of policy, the social investing which ETIs exemplify is unsound. At best, such social investing in practice merely shuffles investment ownership without altering market-based allocations of capital.
Volume
2016
First Page
197
Last Page
206
Publisher
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Keywords
Labor Law, Housing Law, Fiduciaries, Contracts
Disciplines
Contracts | Housing Law | Labor and Employment Law | Law
Recommended Citation
Edward A. Zelinsky,
The Continuing Battle Over Economically Targeted Investments: An Analysis of the Department of Labor's Interpretative Bulletin 2015-01,
2016
Cardozo L. Rev. De-Novo
197
(2016).
https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/faculty-articles/228
