PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Can Employers Impose a Health Insurance Surcharge on Plan Participants Not Vaccinated for COVID-19?
SECURE 2.0 provided employees better access to liquid assets during a major life crisis. We have previously discussed the domestic abuse victim distribution exemption and the emergency personal expense distribution exemption...more
The end of the year is fast approaching. Before calendars fill up too much with parties and PTO, now is a good time to take stock of year-end notice requirements for plan sponsors. As a quick reference, included below are...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
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
The Plan Sponsor Council of America’s (PSCA)65th Annual Survey of 401(k) and Profit Sharing Plans showed record savings in retirement plans. In 2021, participant and employer contribution rates combined to produce an...more
As part of the omnibus spending bill passed in a frenzy before the holiday break, Congress included the Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022 (“SECURE 2.0 Act”). This new law contains several changes that will have a...more
On December 29, 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, which includes the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0). SECURE 2.0 is an expansion of the Setting Every Community Up for...more
As a matter of plan design, for purposes of matching contributions some 401(k) plans provide that a participant’s compensation for the entire plan year is taken into account (regardless of whether the participant makes...more
When markets go south, participants fly for safety. I’m a fan of dollar cost averaging, but that’s just me and my situation as a 50-year-old with 20 years left to maybe retire....more
To help employers properly administer their 401(k) plans, in 2022, Foley & Lardner LLP is authoring a series of monthly “401(k) Compliance Check” newsletters. This article includes some tips for drafting a best-in- class...more
The problem with offering participants direction of investments is participants themselves. As a whole, they make poor investment decisions and exhibit poor timing. So that is just another reason why Bitcoin and 401(k) plans...more
Following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Hughes v. Northwestern University, courts around the country continue to articulate the pleading requirements for a breach of duty of prudence claim under the Employee Retirement...more
The federal Thrift Savings Plan will allow participants to allocate some of their assets through a self-directed brokerage account (SDBA) this summer....more
Given the current market volatility, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) concerns related to the addition of cryptocurrencies in qualified retirement plans seems prescient. In Compliance Assistance Release No. 2022-01, the...more
Late last month, Fidelity Investments created a minor firestorm when it announced that it would allow retirement plan sponsors to offer bitcoin as an investment option for participants. In reaction to this move, the...more
On March 10, 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a Compliance Assistance Release (the “Release”) addressing its views on the availability of cryptocurrencies on 401(k) investment platforms. This guidance comes...more
After federal officials fired a shot across the bow of the crypto world by strongly criticizing the practice of including cryptocurrency as a 401(k) investment option, a new proposal introduced in the U.S. Senate last week...more
Cryptocurrencies and digital assets—such as bitcoin, ether and non-fungible tokens (NFTs)—have become some of the hottest investment products in recent years. The growing interest has inevitably led to retirement plan...more
On January 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down an important decision affecting plan fiduciaries who select investment options available to participants in a self-directed employee retirement plan (such as a 401(k)...more
On January 24, 2022, in a rare, unanimous 8-0 decision (Justice Barrett recused herself from the case), the Supreme Court of the United States (the “Supreme Court”) vacated a Seventh Circuit affirmation of the dismissal of...more
In Hughes v. Northwestern University, current and former participants in Northwestern University's defined-contribution retirement plans filed litigation on behalf of the plans' participants asserting that the University, its...more
Just this month, the Supreme Court issued its much anticipated decision in Northwestern University, the first time the Court has been called upon to examine a lawsuit alleging that a 401(k) plan’s investment and fees were...more
The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments in Hughes v. Northwestern University, in which the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals had rejected claims that the fiduciaries of two defined contribution retirement plans at...more
On Monday, Jan. 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an important decision dealing with defined contribution retirement plans. These plans, which include 401(k) plans, provide an array of investment choices from which...more
In the first decision since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Hughes v. Northwestern Univ., No. 19-1401, 595 U.S. ___ (U.S. Jan. 24, 2022), a Georgia federal district court held in favor of plaintiffs and declined to dismiss...more