This week, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published its highly anticipated Final Rule, which allows working owners with no employees and companies in unrelated industries to band together to create a single defined...more
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has issued new proposed regulations that provide more flexibility for 401(k) and 403(b) plan participants to access their retirement accounts in the event of a financial hardship, as...more
The Fifth Circuit on March 15 vacated U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) regulations that redefined the circumstances in which a person who provides investment advice in connection with a retirement plan or individual retirement...more
3/19/2018
/ Best Interest Contract Exemptions ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Deregulation ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Fiduciary Rule ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Management ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Retirement Plan ,
Trump Administration ,
Vacated
The IRS has announced that it has made substantial modifications to the fee structure applicable to voluntary compliance program (VCP) applications for the correction of compliance defects in tax-qualified retirement plans,...more
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law by President Donald J. Trump shortly before Christmas, is the most significant tax reform legislation in more than 30 years. ...more
1/3/2018
/ Compensation & Benefits ,
Corporate Taxes ,
Employee Benefits ,
Excise Tax ,
Executive Compensation ,
Fringe Benefits ,
Income Taxes ,
New Legislation ,
Popular ,
Remuneration ,
Section 162(m) ,
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ,
Tax Deductions ,
Tax Rates ,
Tax Reform ,
Trump Administration
U.S. Representative Mimi Walters (R-CA) last week introduced bill H.R. 4219, "Workflex in the 21st Century Act," which, if passed, will create a voluntary program through which employers can opt to offer employees a...more
11/13/2017
/ Compensation & Benefits ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Flexible Work Arrangements ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Paid Leave ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Preemption ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Wage and Hour ,
Work Schedules
The Committee on Ways and Means yesterday released the proposed Republican tax reform bill, titled the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act." Although the proposed bill makes major changes to individual and corporate tax provisions in many...more
11/3/2017
/ 457(b) Plans ,
Business Taxes ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Deferred Compensation ,
Employee Benefits ,
Executive Compensation ,
Fringe Benefits ,
Individual Retirement Account (IRA) ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
Retirement Plan ,
Roth Conversions ,
Roth IRA ,
Tax Deductions ,
Tax Exempt Entities ,
Tax Rates ,
Tax Reform ,
Trump Administration
The IRS has released Announcement 2017-11 to provide relief to taxpayers from requirements for loans and hardship distributions for participants of qualified retirement plans who have been adversely affected by Hurricane...more
9/1/2017
/ 401k ,
403(b) Plans ,
457(b) Plans ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Future Tax Treatment ,
Hardship Distributions ,
Hurricane Harvey ,
IRS ,
Loans ,
Natural Disasters ,
Retirement Plan
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently released a draft model form for plan participants to request disclosures from group health plans and insurers about restrictions on mental health coverage. The form is designed to...more
A plaintiffs' class action law firm in St. Louis made national headlines last August when it filed a series of breach of fiduciary duty lawsuits under ERISA, the federal employee benefits law, against the fiduciaries of...more
5/15/2017
/ 401k ,
Breach of Duty ,
Class Action ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Investment Management ,
Mutual Funds ,
Retirement Plan ,
Transaction Fees
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has finalized regulations designed to help stabilize the individual and small group health insurance markets and, in particular, the health insurance exchanges...more
When Donald Trump won the presidential election in November, management-side labor and employment lawyers everywhere scrambled to figure out what the changing administration would mean for our nation's employers and our...more
1/23/2017
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
EEO-1 ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Mandates ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Health Insurance ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Joint Employers ,
LGBTQ ,
Minimum Salary ,
NLRB ,
Over-Time ,
Section 7 ,
Transgender ,
White-Collar Exemptions
The Internal Revenue Service has largely ended its determination letter program by which sponsors of individually designed retirement plans can obtain confirmation that their plan documents are tax-qualified. The IRS has...more
Several ERISA breach of fiduciary duty class actions involving allegedly excessive retirement plan fees were filed this week against higher education institutions including colleges, universities, and medical schools. The...more
8/12/2016
/ 403(b) Plans ,
Breach of Duty ,
Class Action ,
Colleges ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fees ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Investment Management ,
Medical School ,
Retirement Plan ,
Universities
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has finalized regulations describing the circumstances in which a person who provides investment advice in connection with a retirement plan or individual retirement arrangement (IRA) acts...more
ERISA does not allow a state to compel a self-insured group health plan to compile and report medical claims data for inclusion in a state-wide all-payer health care database, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a landmark...more
The Internal Revenue Service has issued a new notice addressing issues relating to future rules governing the calculation and payment of the so-called “Cadillac tax” under the Affordable Care Act. Beginning in 2018, the ACA...more