Hedge fund managers and other investment professionals contemplating swap transactions for employee benefit plans, certain other similar plans and “plan assets” entities subject to the fiduciary provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) or the corresponding provisions of Section 4975 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (Code) must consider numerous legal issues. To help clarify these complex issues, the Hedge Fund Law Report is serializing a treatise chapter by Steven W. Rabitz, partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, and Andrew L. Oringer, partner at Dechert. The chapter describes – in considerable detail and with extensive references to relevant authority – the many substantive considerations associated with employing swaps on behalf of ERISA plan assets and the potential penalties for missteps. This article, the first in our four-part serialization, discusses fiduciary responsibility and prohibited transactions, including how swaps can constitute prohibited transactions. For more from Rabitz and Oringer, see “Is That Your (Interim) Final Answer? New Disclosure Rules Under ERISA to Impact Many Hedge Funds” (Aug. 20, 2010). For a prior serialization from Oringer, see our five-part series:“Happily Ever After? – Investment Funds that Live with ERISA, For Better and For Worse”: Part One (Sep. 4, 2014); Part Two (Sep. 11, 2014); Part Three (Sep. 18, 2014); Part Four (Sep. 25, 2014); and Part Five (Oct. 2, 2014).