Deals and People July 16, 2024

Fiduciary Law Center is New Name of Retirement Law Group

Matthew Eickman joins as chief legal officer as Jason Roberts’ ERISA legal practice aims to represent the broader footprint of its services.

Reported by

Alex Ortolani

The Retirement Law Group Inc., founded in 2011 by ERISA expert Jason Roberts, is now the Fiduciary Law Center, a rebranding that includes bringing on a chief legal officer and specialist attorneys to meet what the firm calls a broader range of services.

Matthew Eickman will take the role of chief legal officer, bringing more than 12 years of experience as a fiduciary plan adviser and consultant, including as a retirement practice leader for Prime Retirement (recently also renamed from Qualified Plan Advisors).

“The rebrand was primarily driven by the fact that, over the past decade, we began serving clients on a broader range of issues that, in many cases, have nothing to do with retirement laws or regulations,” said Roberts said in a statement. “We have steadily enhanced our capabilities to include general securities and banking compliance matters, information and cybersecurity, and mergers and acquisitions, to name a few, and we believe our new name will resonate better with our expanded clientele.”

Jason Roberts

Eickman, who has practiced law for more than 20 years and is active in the American Bar Association’s Tax Section, calls it “an exciting time to work as an ERISA attorney,” as the industry evolves amid changes that include the new fiduciary rule, formerly known as the retirement security rule.

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“I’m excited to bring the experience of working directly with plan sponsors and also having [a registered investment adviser] to craft participant solutions for the past decade to bring into a law firm and work with one of the industry’s greatest thought leaders in Jason Roberts,” says Eickman. “To pair my experience with his leadership is a tremendous opportunity.”

Eickman says the firm has also built out its roster of attorneys to meet three more specialized areas of ERISA law in particular.

One is to assist firms in managing the “less-defined separation” between qualified retirement plans and private wealth management, with attorneys who understand the intersection of those businesses, as firms can “no longer work in a silo and address only traditional plan fiduciary issues.”

Matthew Eickman

A second area is the need to plan sponsor clients with IRS self-correction of retirement plan errors, which was expanded in SECURE Act 2.0 of 2022 legislation and requires more “vigilance” for sponsors to identify and quickly report, Eickman says.

Third, the firm will be focused on understanding and guiding retirement plan fiduciaries on technological advancements regarding the use and protection of confidential information, particularly cybersecurity needs.

New attorneys include Paula Flaherty, who joins after more than 30 years at third-party administrator and recordkeeper firms, including John Hancock Retirement Plan Services LLC, and Michael Haya, previously president of Actuarial Consulting Services, a third-party administrator focused on small businesses.

Fiduciary Law Center’s Roberts is also the founder and CEO of the Pension Resource Institute, an ERISA consulting firm. Among its services is a compliance solutions program for banks, broker/dealers and registered investment advisers.