The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has announced updates to its national enforcement projects for fiscal year 2026. According to the DOL, these projects highlight areas in which the agency will prioritize enforcement efforts to enhance overall employee benefit plan compliance, address abusive practices, and strengthen protections for plan participants and beneficiaries.
Under the updated initiatives, DOL investigators will prioritize cases related to:
- Cybersecurity—This project addresses the growing risks cyberattacks pose to employee benefit plans and participants.
- Mental health and substance use disorder (MH/SUD) benefits—The DOL will target violations by plans and service providers that block participants and beneficiaries from accessing promised MH/SUD benefits.
- Surprise billing—This project reviews compliance with the No Surprises Act (NSA), ensuring plans follow the prudent layperson standard for emergency services, apply in‑network cost‑sharing to NSA‑protected services and provide required notices and disclosures.
- Protecting benefit distributions—This initiative aims to ensure that participants receive retirement benefits owed to them when plan sponsors fail to act, struggle financially or abandon their plans.
- Retirement asset management—This project focuses on protecting retirement income by ensuring fiduciaries prudently select and monitor plan investments.
Criminal abuse of contributory benefit plans—This initiative centers on protecting workers who contribute to employer-sponsored retirement and health benefit plans from criminal abuse.
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