Rusty McGranahan, a former top lawyer at BlackRock and the RIA aggregator Focus Financial Partners, has been named general counsel of the SEC as the Trump administration proposes a new fiduciary rule to outline advisor’ duties when recommending alternative assets for retirement plans.
The SEC announced Thursday that McGranahan will oversee the provision of legal advice to SEC chairman Paul Atkins, as well as the agency’s commissioners and staff. Jeffrey Finnell, who was serving as the SEC’s acting general counsel, now shifts to being deputy general counsel at the agency. Also this week, the Labor Department submitted its proposed rule entitled “Fiduciary Duties in Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives”
“The Trump administration is clearly committed to freeing up private‑sector businesses to work with plans for new products, new services, and creativity,” employee benefits lawyer Fred Reish told InvestmentNews. “Advisors and fiduciaries are going to have to be particularly careful about distinguishing between new or changed things that are good and those that are bad. So it’s a shift of the burden from the regulators onto the fiduciaries.”
Reish joined the $30 billion RIA Prime Capital Financial last month to serve as its new director of fiduciary and ERISA practice (Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.) McGranahan’s experience in both public and private sectors positions him to advise the SEC on legal questions arising from these shifts as private equity and alternative assets are expected to enter 401(k) plans.
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