Former EBSA Head Lisa Gomez Joins Pontera as Strategic Adviser

The former assistant secretary of EBSA will work alongside recordkeepers, retirement plan advisers, plan sponsors and participants on key policy initiatives.

Lisa Gomez

Pontera announced Tuesday that former Department of Labor regulator Lisa Gomez will be a strategic adviser to the company. Gomez’s role will be to accelerate strategic relationships with policymakers across the defined contribution industry.

Pontera is a fintech company that offers a platform designed to help financial advisers manage their clients’ workplace-sponsored retirement plan accounts.

For more stories like this, sign up for the PLANADVISERdash daily newsletter.

Gomez brings more than 30 years of experience working in employee benefits and retirement policy, most recently leading the Employee Benefits Security Administration as Assistant Secretary of Labor at the DOL. Her agency oversaw 801,000 retirement plans with combined assets of $2 trillion, in addition to oversight of the federal Thrift Savings Plan.

“Lisa headed the federal agency responsible for protecting retirement and health benefits of more than 153 million workers, retirees and their families. We couldn’t ask for better alignment in our mission of helping U.S. retirement savers,” said Yoav Zurel, CEO of Pontera, in a statement. “Her deep understanding of the retirement landscape makes her an invaluable addition to the team and a champion for consumers to save, invest, and retire on their own terms by allowing their personal advisor access to their retirement plan assets.”

Natixis Prevails at Court in ERISA Complaint

The judge ruled that the defendants had not breached their fiduciary duty by acting in their own interests, following a two-week bench trial.

A federal judge in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts ruled in favor of Natixis Investment Managers, L.P. in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act complaint brought by former employee Brian Waldner, who alleged the company mismanaged its employee 401(k) retirement plan. 

The case, first filed in February 2021, accused Natixis and its retirement committee of breaching their fiduciary duties by favoring proprietary investment funds and failing to monitor fund performance adequately. Waldner, acting on behalf of a class of plan participants, claimed these decisions led to missed investment gains. 

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan adviser news.

The defendants filed a motion to dismiss the case, which was denied by the district court in December 2021. 

The lawsuit had challenged both the overall management of the Natixis 401(k) Savings and Retirement Plan and specific fund decisions, including the retention of five “at-issue” funds. Waldner argued that Natixis prioritized its business interests by favoring affiliated investment options which underperformed industry benchmarks and had higher fees than comparative funds in the market. 

U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin found that, although there were isolated process failures, such as delays in removing certain funds or conducting structural reviews, it did not meet the standards of a fiduciary breach.   

The court noted that Natixis’s retirement committee relied on independent consultant s Mercer and legal counsel from Sullivan & Worcester throughout the decisionmaking process, which would review proprietary funds. 

According to the court, Natixis’ retirement plans defaulted participants into a non-proprietary suite of funds and offered participants several passive and active non-proprietary options and only added a proprietary fund because it was recommended by consultants. 

“Plaintiffs failed to adduce evidence that the Committee ever prioritized Natixis’s interests over those of plan participants,” the court ruled.  

A spokesperson for Natixis said the company is “gratified by the ruling.”  

Natixis 401(k) savings and retirement plan had $557.8 million in assets as of 2023 with 1,679 plan participants, according to its most recent Form 5500. 

«