The Department of Labor has issued new “safe harbor” rules for the use of electronic media to provide documents required under ERISA. These new rules represent a potentially important easing of the efforts needed for plan administrators to meet disclosure obligations under ERISA. However, a more careful review of the rules raises significant questions about whether the new rules will live up to their potential.

A new lawsuit filed against the Shell Oil Company’s 401(k) plan raises several new challenges to fiduciary’s behavior. Most significantly, the suit assets that participant data is a plan asset and the use of such data by the plan recordkeeper to promote non-plan products generates several new fiduciary challenges.

In a significant development, Vanderbilt University has settled a fiduciary lawsuit--and the settlement includes prohibitions on the use of participant data by plan vendors to market non-plan products.