Kent Mason Featured in Two Articles Regarding DOL Fiduciary Guidance Litigation
- Published Date: July 11, 2025
- Written By: Davis & Harman
Davis & Harman Partner, Kent Mason, was featured in a Plansponsor.com article titled, “District Court Partially Strikes Down DOL’s Fiduciary Rule” and a Pensions & Investments article titled, “Federal court upholds, tosses parts of DOL fiduciary exemption.”
On July 9, 2025, the District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued an order in Federation of Americans for Consumer Choice Inc. v. U.S. Department of Labor partially invalidating the Department of Labor’s (DOL) guidance on the definition of a fiduciary in the preamble to Prohibited Transaction Exemption 2020-02. The court’s order, accepting the findings and recommendations of the magistrate judge, partially invalidated the DOL’s attempt to regulate one-time rollover advice as fiduciary investment advice; however, the ruling otherwise upheld DOL’s preamble to PTE 2020-02 that issued a new interpretation of the five-part test for fiduciary status.
The Plansponsor.com article details the court’s order and additionally discusses the ongoing appellate proceedings regarding DOL’s Retirement Security Rule. Mason is quoted as a legal expert that has raised concern over the court’s ruling that upheld much of the DOL’s preamble in PTE 2020-02.
Mason is quoted saying:
“I do not speak for FACC, obviously, but I would be extremely surprised if FACC did not appeal, and frankly, I would be very surprised if FACC did not win its appeal.”
Mason commented that “[t]he 2020 DOL preamble was just a transparent effort to turn salespeople into fiduciaries, which the 5th Circuit has found invalid.” He said that “[c]learly, neither the magistrate nor the district judge understood the issues. . . the magistrate’s report . . . is just devoid of logic on key points.”
A link to the full article can be found here.
The Pensions & Investments article similarly outlines the court’s order and details a separate, but similar, lawsuit brought by the American Securities Association in Florida regarding many of the same set of issues, that was decided in 2023.
Mason is similarly quoted in the Pensions & Investments article to say that the 2020 DOL preamble would turn salespeople into fiduciaries, and that neither the magistrate nor the district judge understood the issue. Mason is further quoted to say that “[i]f the Retirement Security Rule is invalidated in court, the five-part test would remain law, which makes what happens in the FACC case challenging PTE 2020-02 important.”
A link to the full article can be found here.
