DOL Announces New Guidance on Social Investments

On October 22, 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL” or “Department”) issued guidance on the fiduciary duty provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”) in the context of Economically Targeted Investments (“ETIs”).  An ETI is broadly defined by the DOL, in the preamble to Interpretive Bulletin 2015-01 (“IB 15-01”), as “any investment that is selected, in part, for its collateral benefits, apart from the investment return to the employee benefit plan investors.”  IB 15-01 rescinds a 2008 interpretive bulletin the DOL issued on the same subject and reinstates guidance originally issued by the Department in 1994. Please see the attached memo for further information.