All qualified retirement plans are subject to a myriad of requirements of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA). The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is charged with enforcing the...more
The Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service, and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation recently issued final rules on employee benefit plan annual reporting requirements that are effective for plan years beginning on or...more
SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (the “Act”) was signed into law by President Biden on December 29, 2022 (the date of enactment), as part of the larger government funding bill. The Act makes numerous changes affecting retirement plans....more
The DOL recently issued Field Assistance Bulletin 2021-01, blessing the PBGC’s Missing Participant Program as an additional method of addressing a perennial issue in 401(k) terminations – the problem of missing participants...more
On Thursday, December 19, the Senate passed two spending bills to fund the government through September 30, 2020, one of which (H.R. 1865, the “Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020” or the “Act”) contains the...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) made it easier to consolidate small retirement account balances with a prior employer into a new employer’s plan, now without the direct involvement of the participant....more
QUALIFIED PLANS - Student Loan Repayment Benefits - ? Qualified plan benefit tied to student loan debt repayment ? Special rules apply to these benefits when they are connected to the 401(k) plan ? IRS Private Letter...more
Editor's Overview - As we have observed on other occasions, the ERISA class action plaintiffs' bar has, for several years now, honed in on 401(k) plan fiduciaries and their decisions to select and retain investment options...more
Why Is It Important To Properly Identify All of Your ERISA Benefits? The Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA") imposes numerous requirements on covered employee benefit plans, including annual report...more
Editor's Overview - This month we feature three key developments. First, we review the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Gobeille v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 136 S. Ct. 936, 947 (2016) wherein the Supreme Court held that a...more
Editor's Overview - As the summer draws to a close, this month's Newsletter previews three cases that the U.S. Supreme Court already has agreed to hear that ought to be of particular interest to ERISA plan sponsors and...more
On July 9, 2015, the IRS announced that it intends to amend the required minimum distribution regulations under Section 401(a)(9) of the Internal Revenue Code to prohibit plans from offering voluntary lump-sum cashouts to...more