President Trump Nominates Longtime Fiduciary Expert Daniel Aronowitz to Lead Employee Benefits Security Administration at DOL

President Donald Trump today nominated Daniel Aronowitz, President of Encore Fiduciary and a leading expert with thirty years of experience on fiduciary issues, to be Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) at the U.S. Department of Labor. If confirmed, Aronowitz would be the lead regulator for ESOPs at the Department of Labor, as EBSA is tasked with administration and enforcement under ERISA. 

“The ESOP Association and our membership congratulate Daniel Aronowitz on his nomination, and we look forward to working with the new head of EBSA to end decades of regulatory uncertainty for ESOPs and plan fiduciaries,” said James Bonham, President and CEO of The ESOP Association. “The Association has already received very positive feedback on Mr. Aronowitz’s nomination from our professional service providers, and we are appreciative of his past statements and writing on DOL and EBSA issues. We also welcome his strong, and correct, views on the abusive nature of plaintiff bar lawsuits that are designed only to extract a payday. We look forward to working with him to rebalance the pendulum so plan fiduciaries are not at such a massive disadvantage.  He is someone who clearly understands the challenges that ESOPs and fiduciaries face under the current EBSA culture, and we hope for a speedy confirmation process.”

Aronowitz’s nomination has received positive statements from the Plan Sponsor Council of America and the Investment Company Institute. 

According to his biography on the Encore Fiduciary website, Aronowitz “has thirty years of experience in the professional liability industry as a coverage lawyer and underwriter, and is a widely recognized fiduciary liability expert and thought leader. He is the author of Euclid’s Fiduciary Liability Insurance Handbook and the fiduciary liability insurance chapter of the Trustee Handbook published by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.”