Phyllis C. Borzi, Former Assistant Secretary, Department of Labor, (2009-2017) Joins Fiduciary Institute Board of Advisors

The Institute for the Fiduciary Standard today announced that Phyllis C. Borzi, Assistant Secretary at the Department of Labor (DOL) of the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) from 2009 to 2017, has been appointed to the Board of Advisors of the Institute.

Borzi was honored by the Institute in 2016 with the Frankel Fiduciary Prize.

Michael Zeuner, founder and board member of the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard, said:  “The Board is honored to have Phyllis Borzi join the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard Board of Advisors. Her leadership and expertise are unparalleled and will be instrumental in our efforts to advance fiduciary principles.”

In 2016 the Frankel Fiduciary Prize Selection Committee chair, Deborah A. DeMott said, “Phyllis Borzi exemplifies the clear-eyed commitment to fiduciary principles.” Barbara Roper, Consumer Federation of America, the 2017 Frankel Fiduciary Prize honoree, seconded DeMott’s sentiments, in saying at the time: “Phyllis showed enormous persistence and dedication in sticking with the project when faced with a resistance that would have stopped most regulators in their tracks.”

Borzi said, about the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard, “I have long admired the strong commitment of the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard to protecting investors through research, education and advocacy.  I am excited and honored to join my distinguished colleagues on the Institute’s Advisory Board and add my voice in support of these critically important consumer protection activities.”

Phyllis C. Borzi is Assistant Secretary for Employee Benefits Security of the U.S. Department of Labor. Prior to serving as Assistant Secretary, Borzi was a research professor in the Department of Health Policy at George Washington University’s Medical Center’s School of Public Health and Health Services where she was involved in research and policy analysis. She was also of counsel to the Washington, D.C. law firm of O’Donoghue & O’Donoghue LLP, specializing in ERISA and other legal issues affecting employee benefit plans.

From 1979 to 1995, Borzi served as pension and employee benefit counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Labor-Management Relations of the Committee on Education and Labor. In 1993, she served on working groups dealing with insurance reform, workers’ compensation and employer coverage in connection with the Clinton Task Force on Health Care Reform.

In a profile of Borzi in the Investment News May 2nd 2016 Borzi revealed a personal side. She recalled her grandmother’s name for her, “the tortoise,” as well as her father’s advice learned as a commander in WWII, “A person has to choose the hill you’re going to die on.” That advice apparently stuck.

Borzi is a charter member and former President of the American College of Employee Benefit Counsel and served on its Board of Governors from 2000-2008; former member and former co-chair of the Advisory Board of the BNA Pension & Benefits Reporter; former member of the Advisory Committee of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation; and former member of the Advisory Board of the Pension Research Council, The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania; and former member of the Board of the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER).