DOL Issues Direct Final Rule Removing ERISA-Related Obsolete Guidance; Comments Due July 31

The Department of Labor (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has issued three direct final rules removing interpretive bulletins (IBs) and regulations that it believes are obsolete.

Under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) as originally enacted, the DOL and U.S. Treasury Department's Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had overlapping responsibility for administration of the parallel provisions of Title I of ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code (IRC).

Removal of Definition of Plan Assets - Insurance Company General Accounts: The regulation applies only to certain insurance policies or contracts issued to (or on behalf of) employee benefit plans on or before December 31, 1998. Given the unlikelihood that any of these policies or contracts remain in effect, the DOL believes the regulation is no longer needed.

Removal of Selection of Annuity Providers - Safe Harbor for Individual Account Plans: The regulatory safe harbor became unnecessary in 2019 when Congress amended ERISA to add a more streamlined fiduciary safe harbor covering the same activity. Although the statutory safe harbor did not technically nullify or repeal the regulatory safe harbor, DOL believes its existence is  unnecessary.

Removal of interpretive bulletins from 1975: DOL believes the interpretive bulletins are no longer needed, and if left on the books, add potential confusion and unnecessary complexity. DOL has provided more recent guidance on prohibited transactions issues.

• IB 75-2: Whether a party in interest has engaged in a transaction with an entity in which the plan has invested. An advisory opinion from 2006 is the most current subregulatory guidance.
• IB 75-6: Whether a plan could make an advance to a fiduciary to cover expenses to be properly and actually incurred by such a person in performing duties with respect to the plan. In 1977, a final regulation replaced the IB.
• IB 75-10: Ambiguity arising from the joint jurisdiction of DOL and IRS. Agency jurisdiction was separated in 1978.

This direct final rule removes these obsolete interpretive bulletins prospectively as of September 2, 2025, and has no effect on their legal effectiveness prior to that date.

All three direct final rules are effective September 2, 2025, unless significant adverse comments are received by July 31, 2025.