Jacobson

INTRODUCTION

The Education Code requires disclosure of certain information by vendors offering “tax-deferred retirement investment products as described in [s]ection 403(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986” (403(b) products) to public education employees. (Ed. Code, § 25100, subd. (a).) 1 The Education Code mandates this information, which is separate and distinct from any disclosures required by securities and insurance law or by self-regulatory organizations such as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), be posted on a website maintained by the Teachers’ Retirement Board (board). The code further prohibits a vendor from charging any fee to a public education employee which the vendor is required to, but did not, disclose on the state-maintained website. The Education Code indisputably requires these website disclosures be made to prospective purchasers of an offered 403(b) product. The question here is whether the website disclosure requirements continue to apply to an optional add-on rider for a 403(b) product after that optional rider is no longer offered to prospective purchasers, but the rider is still in force for those who selected it when it was…