Legend - Fred Reish

Sometimes, it’s hard to believe that employee benefits existed prior to the 1974 Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) but, as Fred Reish likes to quip, he was an ERISA lawyer before there was an ERISA. Reish, who has been practicing for more than 35 years, began specializing in employee benefits law prior to the passage of that landmark act. He now works with both private- and public-sector entities and their plans and fiduciaries. Like many lawyers who eventually went into benefits in that era, Reish was first a Trusts & Estates lawyer, who started working with and was really engaged by retirement plan work, and the rest is history.

As the elder statesman for employee benefits legal compliance, Reish, one of the first attorneys to focus on fiduciary issues, has been at the forefront of guiding advisers and others in the retirement plan industry through the complex regulatory maze surrounding these programs. Reish, a partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, has inspired many advisers and service providers to go beyond bare minimum legal compliance to the higher ideal of embracing best practices.

Reish acknowledges that his practice has changed since he began practicing law in the early 1970s. Initially, he says, in the early days of his practicing, ERISA law primarily consisted of drafting and implementing plans for plan sponsors, and keeping those plans in compliance. Over time, he says, the practice shifted from focusing on the plan sponsors to working with retirement plan service providers.

Reish says that it was through his association with ASPPA (American Society for Pension Professionals and Actuaries) that he became a nationally known ERISA expert. It was an actuary named Patrick Byrnes who originally got Reish involved with the predecessor of ASPPA, when he asked Reish to help with the government work of the organization in 1989. “It was getting involved with ASPPA that changed my practice from being just a southern California practice,” says Reish. “It put me on the national stage.”

Reish took a leadership role within ASPPA when the IRS began its actuarial audits of retirement plans in the early 1990s to fight against what many in the industry believed was an unfair and unjust program. Taking that leadership role, he says, got him the reputation as an attorney who could work with the government. Eventually, he says, he worked with both the IRS and ASPPA to co-sponsor the LA Benefits Conference for 10 years and won an award from the IRS Commissioner for his contributions to retirement plans. “I made the contribution of creating a bridge between the government and plan sponsors,” says Reish. Reish says that he often works with the government agencies regulating retirement plans, as to how the plans actually work, so that when new rules are drafted regulating the plans, they can be implemented.

After wrapping up his tenure as co-chair of the LA conference, Reish was asked to co-chair an ASPPA summit on 401(k) plans. Reish and his then law partner, Bruce Ashton, had written the 401(k) Answer Book around that time, so Reish had established himself as a leading expert on 401(k) plans. It was at the first ASPPA 401(k) Summit that Reish met Nevin Adams, the Global Editor-in-Chief of PLANSPONSOR; the two discussed the possibility of a regular column in PLANSPONSOR, one that will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year.

Reish predicts that the issue of retirement security will move to the forefront of the industry over the next five years. With the Baby Boomer generation retiring, the central focus will be on retirees getting distributions from 401(k) plans and trying to make them last. If you have a married couple, both age 65, he says, there is a 25% probability that one will be alive at age 95. Plan sponsors will be examining how to help participants make their money last, and that will lead to new investment products and education services to help participants, he says. Levels of deferrals also will be a focus, he predicts, with more plan sponsors offering their employees analysis to tell them whether they are saving adequately for retirement.

He notes that 401(k) plans will be tested over the next few decades as to their ability to provide adequate retirement income. The focus, he says, will be on benefit adequacy, looking at the fundamental issue of whether participants can afford to retire.

Reish believes that the most significant contribution he has made to the retirement plan industry is getting the message across to plan sponsors and service providers that the fiduciary process matters. Sponsors and service providers should keep one question in mind, he says: What is the best thing for participants and employees to provide them with the greatest retirement benefits? “If that’s the target,” he says, “it’s almost impossible to make a mistake as a fiduciary.”

At age 67, Reish is past the age of “regular” retirement, but does not think he will be retiring anytime soon. “I’m still really interested in everything,” he says, “There’s too much good stuff going on to hang up my spurs. I’m confident I’ll still be working 10 years from now.” —Elayne Robertson Demby 

The “Legend” 

Fred Reish is, for many in the retirement plan industry, a fiduciary compass. His focus not only on what the law says, but also on the best practices resulting from those laws, has allowed many industry professionals to have a better understanding and appreciation for the structure of retirement programs. He often is quoted by advisers, providers, recordkeepers, and plan sponsors, proving that Reish’s writing and speaking has managed to make some of the most complicated legal structures comprehensible, practical, and interesting to many who might otherwise have ignored the topic as too difficult.

C. Frederick Reish is a partner in Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Practice Group and Chair of the Financial Services ERISA Team. He has specialized in employee benefits law since 1973 and works with both private- and public-sector entities and their plans and fiduciaries; representation of plans, employers, and fiduciaries before the governing agencies (e.g., the IRS and the DoL); consulting with banks, trust companies, insurance companies, and mutual fund management companies on 401(k) investment products and issues related to plan investments; and representation of broker/dealers and registered investment advisers on issues related to fiduciary status and compliance, prohibited transactions, and internal procedures. 

Fred serves as a consultant on ERISA litigation and FINRA arbitration, with a focus on cases involving broker/dealers, registered investment advisers, financial service companies, and other service providers.  

Fred also has played a pivotal role in educating the industry through writing, speaking engagements, interviews, conferences, and personal appearances; has written a monthly column for PLANADVISER’s sister publication PLANSPONSOR since 2002; and is a charter faculty member of the PLANSPONSOR Institute. He has written four books and more than 350 articles on fiduciary responsibility, prohibited transactions, Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor audits, and pension plan disputes, and is also frequently quoted in publications. He is a nationally known speaker about fiduciary responsibility, technical compliance matters, and litigation issues. He is frequently engaged to serve as an expert witness in state and federal courts as well as FINRA arbitration proceedings. He received a J.D. from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law and B.S. from Arizona State University.