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Labor Assistant Secretary Aronowitz issued guidance curtailing EBSA fiduciary enforcement amid deep staff cuts

On April 14, 2026, Labor Department Assistant Secretary Daniel Aronowitz issued Field Assistance Bulletin 2026-01, directing the Employee Benefits Security Administration to pull back from case-by-case enforcement of retirement- and health-plan fiduciary violations and instead develop new legal theories only through formal rulemaking. The guidance followed roughly 100 staff departures at EBSA during 2025 amid broader federal workforce cuts and required senior-leadership review of significant enforcement actions going forward. Aronowitz, who ran a fiduciary-liability insurance firm before his confirmation, also barred any appearance of coordination between EBSA investigators and private plaintiff attorneys amid an ongoing DOL Inspector General inquiry into that practice.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

On April 14, 2026, the Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) issued Field Assistance Bulletin 2026-01, internal enforcement guidance signed by Assistant Secretary Daniel Aronowitz directing investigators to curtail case-by-case enforcement of retirement- and health-plan fiduciary violations. The bulletin states EBSA should, "whenever possible and consistent with our mission," avoid regulating "by enforcement" and instead rely on formal rulemaking or published sub-regulatory guidance before pursuing novel legal theories against plan fiduciaries. It reprioritizes enforcement toward clear breaches of the duty of loyalty — self-dealing, misappropriation, criminal misuse of plan assets — while deprioritizing "prudence"-based cases that turn on whether fiduciaries followed sound process. Aronowitz, who led a fiduciary-liability insurance underwriting firm before his September 2025 confirmation and has publicly criticized what he calls "regulation through enforcement," also required that significant enforcement actions, settlements, and novel legal initiatives receive advance review by senior EBSA leadership before proceeding.

Capital & Main reported the guidance followed a 26% overall staff reduction and a 40% cut to EBSA's investigative staff since 2024; Bloomberg Law separately reported roughly 100 staff departures at the agency during 2025 amid broader federal workforce cuts, leaving an agency that oversees more than 800,000 retirement plans and trillions of dollars in assets "unbelievably understaffed," in the words of a retired 35-year DOL veteran. The bulletin also bars EBSA staff from any conduct creating "even the appearance" of coordination with private plaintiff attorneys pursuing related litigation — a provision that surfaced amid an active DOL Inspector General investigation into whether EBSA investigators had improperly coordinated with plaintiff law firms, which Aronowitz acknowledged in a footnote to the bulletin.

Updates

2026-06-30 — DOL IG faulted EBSA oversight of plaintiff-attorney agreements [5]

The Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General released "DOL Needs Stronger Oversight and Controls for Sharing Confidential Information" (Report No. 09-26-001-08-001), finding EBSA lacked formal policies, tracking mechanisms, and coordination processes for common interest agreements that let investigators share confidential information with private plaintiff attorneys -- the practice FAB 2026-01 barred any "appearance" of. The audit reviewed seven EBSA agreements out of 48 department-wide and found inconsistent execution and inadequate oversight of disclosures to outside parties.

Why we recorded this

Separation of powers requires executive agencies to enforce the laws Congress enacted, not to narrow their own enforcement mandate by internal fiat. On April 14, 2026, the Labor Department's Employee Benefits Security Administration, led by a former fiduciary- insurance executive, issued guidance directing investigators to pull back from case-by- case enforcement of ERISA fiduciary violations in favor of formal rulemaking, following a year of heavy staff attrition. This erodes the norm because it uses internal agency guidance, rather than legislative or public rulemaking process, to shrink oversight of a system holding trillions of dollars in retirement and health-plan assets for millions of workers, at the direction of an official whose prior career involved insuring the same fiduciaries the agency regulates.

Sources

  1. Trump Cuts Quietly Gutted a Health Plan and Retirement Watchdog — Capital & Main investigative accessed July 20, 2026
  2. EBSA Outlines Enforcement Priorities — ASPPA-Net investigative accessed July 20, 2026
  3. DOL Puts Bad Actors on Notice: EBSA Resets Its Enforcement Compass — On The Labor Front investigative accessed July 20, 2026
  4. Labor Benefits Regulator Staffs for Enforcement Strategy Shift — Bloomberg Law investigative accessed July 20, 2026
  5. DOL Needs Stronger Oversight and Controls for Sharing Confidential Information (Report No. 09-26-001-08-001) — U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General primary accessed July 20, 2026

See also