#WorkforceWednesday®: New DOL Guidance - ERISA Plan Cybersecurity Update - Employment Law This Week®
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - New IRS Guidance on SECURE 2.0 Act Student Loan Employer Contributions
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Understanding Lifetime Income Products
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Trends in Recordkeeper Consolidation and Due Diligence
Long-Term Part-Time Employee Eligibility Rules Now in Effect — Troutman Pepper Podcast
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - What the J&J Case Means for Plan Administrators
What Can A Tax Attorney Do For You? A Podcast With Janathan Allen
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Understanding Fees in Retirement Planning
The No Surprises Act: A Cost Saving Opportunity for Employer Plan Sponsors
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - ESG Investing by Retirement Plans
Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation: Getting Ready for 2024 – Top-Hat Plans — Special Edition Podcast
Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation: Getting Ready for 2024 - Health and Welfare Plan Developments — Special Edition Podcast
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Auto-Portability: A New Way to Keep Retirement Savings Growing
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - IRS 2024 Health Plan Affordability Threshold May Put Some at Risk
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - SECURE 2.0 Act Relief for Plan Corrections
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Partial Plan Terminations
Podcast Episode 189: Adding Context to Compliance and Color To Your Legal Practice
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - SECURE 2.0 Act - More Relief for Plan Administrators
The Burr Broadcast April 2023 - The Official End of COVID-19 Emergencies
#WorkforceWednesday: SECURE Act 2.0 - What 401(k) Plan Sponsors Need to Know - Employment Law This Week®
Chavez v. Plan Benefit Services, Inc., 108 F.4th 297 (5th Cir. 2024), began when three employees of a single employer sued the service providers of their health and welfare benefit plan for allegedly charging excessive fees...more
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, has published her Autumn 2024 budget with the aim of “fixing the foundations of the economy and delivering change by protecting working people.” We set out a very brief summary...more
Earlier this month, a group of retired employees of Citgo Petroleum Corporation filed a motion for settlement of their lawsuit claiming they were harmed by their pension plan’s use of unreasonable actuarial assumptions. The...more
A long-time advisor-client called with a chuckle that both he and I were right and a partner at a law firm admitted that we were....more
In England, many of the top pubs are owned by British breweries because watering holes are an effective means of beer distribution. Pepsico (owners of Pepsi) used to own Yum Brands (KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, etc.) for that...more
When drafting new 401(k) plans for clients during the middle of the year, I like drafting them with an effective date of the first of the year and with deferrals effective as of when they can run the plan with payroll. Like...more
Ihave a college degree and two law de- grees (I’m not bragging), so I have three alma maters. I attended Stony Brook University, American University Washing- ton College of Law, and Boston University. Out of the three, my...more
This starts a new series of blog posts…Things I Worry About. I will number these, but they will be more episodic than sequential. SECURE Act 2.0 was enacted on December 29, 2022. Among its provisions is a requirement that...more
It’s all friendly between the plan sponsor and the Third-Party Administrator (TPA) until the plan sponsor wants to make a change. Then it could get nasty when the TPA wants to be compensated for doing work for the...more
As Michael Corleone said in the very underrated “The Godfather Part III”, “Just when I want to get out, they keep bringing me back in.”...more
As qualified retirement plan sponsors evaluate the various new distribution options available under SECURE 2.0 (read our overview here), it is worth asking: What is your company’s retirement philosophy? The answer to this...more
When I first started in the retirement plan business in 1998, I worked for a law firm that served as the counsel for a third-party administration (TPA) firm in Syosset, NY....more
In potentially welcome news for public institutions of higher education, in Notice 2024-73, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) confirmed that the new long-term part-time (LTPT) rules introduced by the SECURE Act and SECURE...more
I call this time of the year Retirement Plan Crazy Season where plan sponsors decided to change plan providers to get things changing smoothly on January 1. I call it Crazy Season based on NASCAR’s Crazy Season when drivers...more
When you start fixing up the house (for me, a never-ending battle) and replacing appliances or items like the front door or the roof (had to fix it again), you realize that the replacements are more energy efficient....more
The October Monthly Minute highlights two recent retirement plan cases, one in which the court sides with the plan and emphasizes plan administrative review over specific investment results and another where plaintiffs are...more
Missing that deadline to file a Form 5500 is a huge problem. Sometimes people forget even when the Third Party Administrator (TPA) completes it promptly. I’ve had clients not realizing they had a year or two years’ worth of...more
The long-anticipated final rule under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) was published on September 9, 2024. The MHPAEA prohibits group health plans that provide mental health and substance use...more
There is a saying I have about scams: “I’m from Brooklyn, you’re go- ing to have to get up earlier in the morning to get one on me.” Growing up in Canarsie Brooklyn in the 1970s and 1980s allowed me to have street smarts,...more
Earlier this week, the IRS released Notice 2024-77, which provides much-anticipated guidance related to the handling of so-called “inadvertent benefit overpayments” from qualified retirement plans under the SECURE 2.0 Act. ...more
Open enrollment is right around the corner (at least for employers that run calendar-year health benefit plans), so many employers will be updating their benefit communication plans. Though not comprehensive, the following is...more
Recent scrutiny of pharmacy benefit managers, also known as “PBMs,” has resulted in various lawsuits alleging that the high drug costs they charge violate ERISA. Among the first lawsuits in what appears to be a wave of new...more
Fall greetings from the Kaufman & Canoles ESOPs, Benefits & Compensation team. We hope you’re enjoying the cooler weather, changing leaves, and—of course—the continual pace of change in employee benefits. Please find below a...more
If you are a state or local government that sponsors a “self-funded” employee group health plan instead of using an insurance provider, you had previously been allowed to “opt out” of compliance with the following four...more
In the movie “Back to School,” Thornton Melon, played by Rodney Dangerfield laments that his second wife, Vanessa is a pain and gives a “great headache.” While participants, namely business owners, want a self-directed...more