To encourage participation in 401(k) plans, the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (SECURE Act) requires employers who sponsor 401(k) plans with eligibility service requirements that exclude...more
The IRS issued guidance on Friday, August 25, 2023, under Section 603 of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, which requires age-based catch-up contributions by high-paid employees to a 401(k), 403(b), or governmental 457(b) plan to...more
The U.S. Treasury Department issued proposed regulations regarding the treatment of forfeited amounts in tax-qualified defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans. The February 27, 2023 proposed regulations, if...more
Summary -
On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed into law the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (the Act) as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. SECURE 2.0 features more than 350 pages of new laws affecting...more
Summary -
The U.S. Supreme Court this week unanimously decided an ERISA fiduciary duty case, Hughes v. Northwestern University, which will impact dozens of similar cases currently pending against fiduciaries of section...more
1/27/2022
/ 401k ,
403(b) Plans ,
Breach of Duty ,
Duty of Prudence ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Hughes v. Northwestern University ,
Plan Participants ,
Retirement Plan ,
SCOTUS ,
Tibble v Edison Int
Summary -
The United States Department of Labor (DOL) issued guidance to assist plan fiduciaries in fulfilling their ongoing obligation of locating missing or nonresponsive participants and distributing benefits to such...more
The United States Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a new set of proposed regulations providing guidance to plan fiduciaries about investing plan assets in investment vehicles that have environmental, social, and/or...more
6/26/2020
/ 401k ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Investment Management ,
New Guidance ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Retirement Plan
The IRS has released Notice 2020-50, which provides guidance to employers that have amended their retirement plans to take advantage of provisions under the CARES Act that provide access to special plan distributions, known...more
6/26/2020
/ CARES Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Distribution Rules ,
Employee Benefits ,
Federal Loans ,
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ,
Popular ,
Relief Measures ,
Retirement Plan ,
Safe Harbors ,
SBA Lending Programs
The IRS released Notice 2020-42, which provides temporary relief during calendar year 2020 from the physical presence requirements for participant elections in retirement plans....more
On May 27, 2020, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) published its highly-anticipated Default Electronic Disclosures by Employee Pension Benefit Plans Under ERISA Final Rule (the E-Disclosure Final Rule), which...more
The Internal Revenue Service has issued frequently asked questions (FAQs) clarifying the special distribution options and loan relief provisions applicable to eligible retirement plans and IRAs found in section 2202 of the...more
The Internal Revenue Service has issued Notice 2020-23, which automatically postpones certain deadlines affecting employee benefit plans. Specifically, any deadline that would ordinarily fall on or after April 1, 2020,...more
4/18/2020
/ 401k ,
403(b) Plans ,
457(b) Plans ,
Deadlines ,
Deferred Action ,
Defined Contribution Plans ,
Employee Benefits ,
ESOP ,
Form 5500 ,
IRA Rollovers ,
IRC Section 83(b) ,
PBGC ,
Premiums ,
Relief Measures ,
Repayment Options ,
Retirement Plan
The Internal Revenue Service has announced that, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, its March 31, 2020, deadline for remedial amendments to section 403(b) plans has been extended to June 30, 2020....more
The Coronavirus, Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, which passed the Senate last night, is Congress’s third legislative answer to the coronavirus pandemic. The CARES Act represents a heavily negotiated...more
Across the United States, employers are carefully considering how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting their business. As we await further guidance and pronouncements from federal, state, and local officials, some employers are...more
3/18/2020
/ Affordable Care Act ,
COBRA ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Crisis Management ,
DFSA ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
Furloughs ,
Health and Safety ,
Health and Welfare Plans ,
Health Insurance ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Layoffs ,
Public Health ,
Retirement Plan ,
Unemployment Benefits
Below is a summary of those key provisions. I. SECURE Act The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the SECURE Act, H.R. 1994) is arguably the most significant and comprehensive retirement saving...more
12/23/2019
/ 401k ,
Affordable Care Act ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Benefits ,
Health Insurance Tax ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Individual Retirement Account (IRA) ,
Medical Leave ,
Multiemployer Plan ,
New Legislation ,
Paid Family Leave Law ,
PCORI ,
Required Minimum Distributions ,
Retirement ,
Retirement Plan ,
Safe Harbors ,
SECURE Act ,
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ,
Tax Planning ,
Tax Rates ,
Tax Reform ,
UBIT
The U. S. Department of the Treasury recently issued final regulations governing hardship distributions from 401(k) and 403(b) retirement savings plans....more
10/1/2019
/ 401k ,
403(b) Plans ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Contributions ,
Final Rules ,
Hardship Distributions ,
IRS ,
New Regulations ,
QMAC ,
QNEC ,
Retirement Plan ,
Tax Deferral ,
U.S. Treasury
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 IRS announced yesterday that it will expand its determination letter program for tax-qualified retirement plans. Under previous IRS procedures, a plan sponsor could submit its plan document to the IRS, and the IRS would...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 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
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