Following up on President Trump’s December executive order Protecting American Investors From Foreign-Owned and Politically Motivated Proxy Advisors , the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration April 15 issued a news release saying proxy advisory firms commonly engage in business practices that meet the test for being investment advice fiduciaries.

In an April 7 announcement releasing the SEC’s fiscal 2025 enforcement data, the commission clarifies that it is taking a different approach to enforcement and strongly criticizes the one taken previously by the SEC under the Biden administration.

Incidences of financial fraud are growing exponentially thanks to globalization and technological advances and the best way to combat this growth is for multiple entities to collaborate on prevention, said witnesses at an April 15 hearing held by the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Capital Markets.

As of March 17, 2026, 184 environmental, social and sustainable governance related shareholder proposals were filed, a 47% reduction compared to 2025, reports Proxy Preview 2026 published by As You Sow and Proxy Impact. The decrease in the number of proposals filed can be attributed to the SEC's “unilateral rule changes” that have pushed engagement behind the scenes, says a statement by As You Sow.

Barbara Butrica has been named director of research at the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS), effective April 27. She will lead the NIRS research agenda, overseeing the development of data-driven analysis to inform policymakers, stakeholders and the public about the state of retirement security in the United States.