Financial Freedom Act of 2022
Bill: H.R.7860 | Sponsor: Rep. Donalds, Byron (R-FL)
Policy area: Labor and Employment

Summary:
Financial Freedom Act of 2022
This bill prohibits the Department of Labor from limiting the type or range of investments that fiduciaries may offer participants and beneficiaries in certain employer-sponsored retirement plans. The bill applies to certain defined contribution plans that permit participants or beneficiaries to exercise control over the assets in the account, such as a 401(k) plan that allows participants or beneficiaries to select additional investment options through a self-directed brokerage window.

To prohibit the Secretary of Labor from constraining the range or type 
of investments that may be offered to participants and beneficiaries of 
individual retirement accounts who exercise control over the assets in 
                             such accounts.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Financial Freedom Act of 2022''.

SEC. 2. FIDUCIARY DUTIES WITH RESPECT TO PENSION PLAN INVESTMENTS.

    Section 404(a) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 
1974 (29 U.S.C. 1104(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
            ``(3)(A) In the case of a pension plan that provides for 
        individual accounts and permits a participant or beneficiary to 
        exercise control over the assets in the participant's or 
        beneficiary's account, nothing in paragraph (1)--
                    ``(i) requires a fiduciary to select, or prohibits 
                a fiduciary from selecting, any particular type of 
                investment alternative, provided that a fiduciary 
                provides the participant or beneficiary an opportunity 
                to choose, from a broad range of investment 
                alternatives, the manner in which some or all of the 
                assets of the participant's or beneficiary's account 
                are invested, according to regulations prescribed by 
                the Secretary; or
                    ``(ii) requires that any particular type of 
                investment be either favored or disfavored, other than 
                on the basis of the investment's risk-return 
                characteristics, in the context of the plan fiduciary's 
                objective of providing investment alternatives suitable 
                for providing benefits for participants and 
                beneficiaries.
            ``(B) In the event that a fiduciary selects a self-directed 
        brokerage window as an investment alternative for a plan 
        described in subparagraph (A)--
                    ``(i) the Secretary shall not issue any regulations 
                or subregulatory guidance constraining or prohibiting 
                the range or type of investments that may be offered 
                through such brokerage window;
                    ``(ii) subsection (c) shall apply to such self-
                directed brokerage window; and
                    ``(iii) the diversification requirement of 
                paragraph (1)(C) and the prudence requirement of 
                paragraph (1)(B) are not violated by the fiduciary's 
                selection of a self-directed brokerage window as an 
                investment alternative or as a result of the exercise 
                of a participant or beneficiary's control over the 
                assets in such self-directed brokerage window.''.
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