PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Trends in Recordkeeper Consolidation and Due Diligence
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Exploring the Value of Qualified Default Investment Alternatives
The Form 5500: What All Employers and Plan Administrators Need to Know and How to Avoid Costly Fines
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 - Payroll Integration for Plan Sponsors
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Plan Administrators’ 2020 Year-End Checklist
Cutting Costs With Employee Benefit Plans (Part 5 of 5) – Implementation
Cutting Costs With Employee Benefit Plans (Part 4 of 5) – Retirement Plan Costs
Cutting Costs With Employee Benefit Plans (Part 3 of 5) – Medical Benefit Costs
Cutting Costs With Employee Benefit Plans (Part 2 of 5) – Identifying Potential Targets
Cutting Costs With Employee Benefit Plans (Part 1 of 5) – Using Benefit Plans to Save Money
CARES Act – Retirement Plan Distributions and Loans: Troutman Sanders and Pepper Hamilton COVID-19 Issues for Employers Podcast Series
Blakes Continuity Podcast: COVID-19: The Regulatory Impact on Pensions
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Plan Administrators’ 2019 Year-End Checklist
On April 15, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) published a Notice of Proposed Information Request (the “Notice”), outlining its plan to create the Retirement Savings Lost and Found required by SECURE Act 2.0. Although...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it has finalized, together with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), the third and final round of revisions to the Form 5500 Annual...more
A proposed rule released last week would amend the U.S. Department of Labor's Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program ("VFCP") to allow for self-correction by plan fiduciaries in certain circumstances. The VFCP allows...more
An ERISA plan administrator must, if requested by a claimant contesting an adverse benefits determination, produce a copy of an audio recording or transcript of a telephone conversation between the claimant and a plan...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued new guidance on best practices for maintaining cybersecurity in connection with ERISA plans (the Guidance). The Guidance, which is intended for sponsors, fiduciaries, record...more
Last year the Department of Labor (DOL) issued an interim final rule regarding the SECURE Act’s lifetime income disclosures, which require benefit statements to express a participant’s account balance as a single life annuity...more
For the first time, the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has released cybersecurity guidance aimed at protecting workers' retirement benefits. The guidance, which was released...more
The Department of Labor (“DOL”) has undertaken a nationwide compliance initiative to ensure that retirement plan participants receive the benefits that they were promised when they reach their retirement age. To that end, the...more
Do you remember the scene in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy, the Scarecrow and Tin Man were walking into the forest chanting “lions and tigers and bears, oh my”? I could not help but mutter “oh my” under my breath when I...more
The Setting Every Community Up For Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the “SECURE Act”), made sweeping changes to retirement plan rules. As described in our prior alert, certain provisions took effect immediately and were...more
The United States Department of Labor (DOL) finalized a new safe harbor rule for the use of electronic media to furnish information to participants and beneficiaries of employee retirement plans subject to the Employee...more
I love Las Vegas and the last two times I was there; I didn’t gamble a nickel. I hate gambling because I hate to lose. For me, getting up in the morning is a big enough gamble. A lot of plan sponsors gamble when they...more
In the News. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to create a new category of “seasoned” qualified mortgages; the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Office of...more
The DOL recently provided retirement plans with a new method to comply electronically with certain participant disclosure and notice requirements. See our blog post outlining the new DOL rule. This new method adds to the...more
On May 21, 2020, the Department of Labor (the “DOL”) announced a final rule establishing a new electronic disclosure safe harbor. The new safe harbor permits retirement plan administrators to deliver certain plan documents by...more
It’s great that the Department of Labor (DOL) has finally embraced the electronic disclosure of important ERISA notices. It took them a long time, but when your business is trying to protect participant rights, this is what...more
My experience at law school could probably be summed up by one event. For first-year law students, there is an event that everyone participates in and it’s called Moot Court where students argue a fictional appellate case in...more
On May 21, 2020 the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a new rule creating a voluntary safe harbor for retirement plan administrators who prefer to provide ERISA-mandated retirement plan information and disclosures to...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Following up on proposed rules issued in October 2019, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) just issued final regulations addressing an employer’s or plan administrator’s ability to send certain retirement plan...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) issued final electronic disclosure rules for retirement plans on May 27, 2020 (2020 Safe Harbor). We are already fielding questions about these new rules and have provided answers here to some of...more
On May 21, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced publication of its long-awaited guidance on electronic participant disclosures. The good news is that the DOL has taken a step in the right direction in easing...more
On April 29, 2020, the U.S. Departments of Labor (Employee Benefits Security Administration, “EBSA”) and Treasury (IRS) published a final regulation, and EBSA issued a package of guidance and relief, for employee benefit...more
Imagine if Mark Zuckerberg hatched the idea for Facebook, yet all he did was talk about the site instead of developing. Imagine if Jeff Bezos talked for a year or two about selling books on the Internet instead of going...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
There are quite a few people who will say that the Department of Labor (DOL) didn’t go far enough in their proposed regulations on electronic delivery of plan disclosures....more