Overview
- The Labor Department sent a final-rule package titled “Fiduciary Duties In Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives” to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which logged the filing on Thursday, Nov. 5 as RIN 1210-AC38 and flagged it as economically significant.
- The rule, proposed in March, would create a process-based safe harbor that gives fiduciaries deference if they follow a documented review that weighs six factors: performance, fees, liquidity, valuation, performance benchmarks, and complexity.
- The framework is written to apply across alternative investments rather than singling out crypto, so it would not force employers to add cryptocurrency but would make managed routes that hold digital assets easier for plan committees to consider.
- Key limits remain unresolved because the final regulatory text and effective date are still under OIRA review; the March draft also excluded selection of service providers and ongoing monitoring from the selection-focused safe harbor.
- The rule touches a large market — about $10.8 trillion in U.S. 401(k) assets — which is why speculative scenarios such as a 2% shift into crypto (roughly $216 billion) are being discussed, and markets will watch OIRA’s timing and the department’s published text for details on scope and protections.