The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) will release advisory opinions and information letters as part of the U.S. Department of Labor today announcing the launch of its opinion letter program.
“Opinion letters are an important tool in ensuring workers and businesses alike have access to clear, practical guidance.”
Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling
In a press release today, the DOL said the program expands its longstanding commitment to providing meaningful compliance assistance that helps workers, employers and other stakeholders understand how federal labor laws apply in specific workplace situations.
“Opinion letters are an important tool in ensuring workers and businesses alike have access to clear, practical guidance,” said Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling. “Launching this program is part of our broader effort to empower the public with the information they need to understand and comply with the laws the department enforces.”
Opinion letters provide official written interpretations from the department’s enforcement agencies, explaining how laws apply to specific factual circumstances presented by individuals or organizations. By addressing real-world questions, they promote clarity, consistency, and transparency in the application of federal labor standards.
They can be requested by anyone, including workers, employers, employment associations, lawyers, human resource professionals, unions and industry leaders. Generally, these letters concern matters where it is unclear how to apply existing regulations or guidance.
To support this effort, the department has launched a landing page at dol.gov/opinion-letters. The new site allows users to explore past guidance and provides an easy way to submit new requests to the appropriate agency.
The landing page provides tips to help interested parties present questions in a way that highlights for the DOL why the request should be addressed. Among them:
- Reference any specific laws, regulations or other guidance that you think is relevant.
- Include an accurate and complete description of the facts, such as job duties, work schedules or pay structure.
- Confirm that the request is not related to an existing matter that requires the interpretation of federal law. Note that DOL does not issue letters for use in any investigation or litigation matter that existed before submitting a request.
- Do not include sensitive personal or confidential business information – responses may be published publicly on our website.
The most recent advisory opinion from the EBSA concerning ERISA compliance is Advisory Opinion 2024-02A, issued on Dec. 20, 2024. This opinion addresses whether the ICI Benefits Consortium Health Benefit Plan qualifies as an “employee welfare benefit plan” under ERISA and whether it is maintained by a “group or association of employers” as defined in the statute.
In 2023 late September 2023, the DOL released Advisory Opinion 2023-01A, in response to law firm Thompson Hine’s request on behalf of Citigroup Inc. and its affiliates for the Department’s views on the application of certain fiduciary responsibility provisions of Title I of ERISA to Citi’s Action for Racial Equity Asset Manager Program.
Under the voluntary program, part of Citibank’s larger Action for Racial Equity (ARE) designed to address the “racial wealth gap” affecting the business environment in which Citibank operates, Citibank commits to pay all or part of the fees of diverse asset managers for the ERISA plans it sponsors.
The Opinion Letter was viewed as groundbreaking in that it was the first time DOL opined on how much latitude a plan sponsor has in matters of plan design that include decisions regarding which plan-related fees it will (or will not) pay, and it provided explicit guidance regarding how to structure a program based on the plan sponsor’s corporate interests in a manner that avoids application of ERISA’s fiduciary rules to that program.
SEE ALSO:
• ‘Groundbreaking’ DOL Advisory Opinion for Citibank Provides ERISA Guidance