PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - New IRS Guidance on SECURE 2.0 Act Student Loan Employer Contributions
What Can A Tax Attorney Do For You? A Podcast With Janathan Allen
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Auto-Portability: A New Way to Keep Retirement Savings Growing
#WorkforceWednesday: SECURE Act 2.0 - What 401(k) Plan Sponsors Need to Know - Employment Law This Week®
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Plan Administrators’ 2022 Year-End Checklist
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Court Decisions Impacting Plan Sponsors and Fiduciaries
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Helping Employers Address the Gender Gap in Retirement Savings
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Millennials, Boomers and Retirement Planning
The Form 5500: What All Employers and Plan Administrators Need to Know and How to Avoid Costly Fines
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Cryptocurrency in 401(k) Plans
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - What Constitutes Plan Assets Under ERISA?
2022 Resolutions: What Healthcare Practices Need To Tackle In the New Year
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Cautionary Tales for Preapproved Plan Documents
DOL Clarifies Timing of Lifetime Income Disclosures in Benefit Statements
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Back to the Future: SECURE Act and SECURE Act 2.0
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Payroll Integration for Plan Sponsors
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Plan Administrators’ 2020 Year-End Checklist
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Cybersecurity Considerations for Retirement Plan Sponsors
Three Timely Benefits Items Everyone Should Know
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - COVID-19 Edition - Employee Benefits Considerations When Conducting Furloughs and Layoffs
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on April 23, 2024, issued the Retirement Security Rule (the Final Rule), which expands who qualifies as an investment advice fiduciary for purposes of the Employee Retirement Income Security...more
On November 1, 2023, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Notice 2023-75, which sets forth the 2024 cost-of-living adjustments affecting dollar limits on benefits and contributions for qualified retirement plans. The...more
In August 2023, American Airlines, Inc. moved to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed against the airline for allegedly jeopardizing employees’ retirement savings by investing in environmental, social and governance (ESG)...more
Employers who sponsor retirement plans for their employees face annual reporting requirements that may involve significant expenses. One of these is the requirement that a plan be audited annually by an independent qualified...more
Whether it’s a partner in your business or a business partnership with another plan provider, it needs to be the right fit. I worked for two third-party administrators (TPAs) where partnership mismatches helped doom them....more
One of my pet peeves out there is when you give a list of complaints to a business or an organization and they give the proverbial “shrug of the shoulders.” The “proverbial shrug” is basically the business or the organization...more
Fiduciaries of retirement plans continue to be plagued by class actions brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) challenging their fiduciary management of investment options and participant fees. A...more
I once said that I thought I lived in a great community until I joined the Facebook community newsgroups. You just can’t imagine what people think. The same can be said about some of these polls of plan participants, which...more
A class action lawsuit brought by former SeaWorld employees that alleged participants in the SWBG LLC 401(k) plan were harmed will continue. The former employees’ arguments sustained the fiduciary breach of the duty of...more
I’ve been long in this business to remember no participant websites, so I’m amazed by technological breakthroughs. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools BenchMine is billed as the first-ever AI 401(k) comparative analysis...more
New Vanguard data shows that 72% of plan sponsors allowed for immediate eligibility of retirement saving deferrals in 2021, which is an increase over the 58% in 2012, according to own research. Although not every Vanguard...more
One Digital announced it has acquired - 401K Resources and The Clear Group 401K Resources was founded by Renee Scherzer, the President-Elect of the National Association of Plan Advisors (NAPA). The Clear Group, founded by...more
If your Department of Labor (DOL) proposes a rule, as President, you’re not likely to throw them under the bus and overrule them. In a move that surprised no one, President Joe Biden used his first veto to preserve a...more
While the past 11 years, 401(k) plan sponsors have been concerned with cost since mandatory fee disclosure, I think there is one diagnostic that they should focus on and rarely do. The diagnostic is the deferral rate of...more
When working with other plan providers, trust is the biggest underpinning. Without it, you have nothing else. If you can’t trust the plan provider you’re working with, then why are you in business with them?...more
While most 401(k) plans don’t have account balances, the shuttering of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank is a pause for concern. While there might be some pension plans that could have been affected by the failures of...more
How to determine whether a plan sponsor is paying way too much? Like Justice Potter Stewart would say, I know it when I see it. I have seen the information shown on Form 5500 or a fee disclosure form. Whether it’s the plan...more
I saw a recent article by Matthew Breunig, suggesting that instead of cutting Social Security, we should end the tax breaks for 401(k) plans. He claims that the tax advantage of IRAs and defined contribution plans is $371...more
Social media is one of the great tools that I needed to start my own ERISA practice. While my Twitter handle can attract some interaction with non-retirement folks, I’m always mindful of what I post and how I handle myself....more
I like state mandates for retirement plan coverage, because it increases interest in employers sponsoring 401(k) plans. I’m of the opinion that when push comes to shove, employers would rather sponsor their own 401(k) plan or...more
As a 401(k) plan sponsor, you need to make sure that all your plan providers understand any ownership interests in other companies that you may have and make a determination whether those interests constitute a controlled...more
Individual retirement accounts (IRAs) remain the biggest segment of the retirement plan market, hitting almost $14 trillion in assets, thanks to 401(k) rollovers. Over the past 10 years, IRA market share has increased...more
With some great presentations and a lively roundtable, That 401(k) National Virtual Conference entertained and educated more than 50 plan providers on January 26-27th. Presentations included a litigation update from Invesco’s...more
U.S. Bank and its 401(k) Savings Plan is the latest target of a class action lawsuit in Minnesota. According to the complaint, from the years 2016 through 2021, the Plan paid an effective average annual administration fee of...more
On May 9, the SEC announced an extension of the comment period for the proposed rulemaking, “Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors,” until June 17, 2022. The scope and comment process...more