PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Can Employers Impose a Health Insurance Surcharge on Plan Participants Not Vaccinated for COVID-19?
Chavez v. Plan Benefit Services, Inc., 108 F.4th 297 (5th Cir. 2024), began when three employees of a single employer sued the service providers of their health and welfare benefit plan for allegedly charging excessive fees...more
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 US Department of Labor has released its package of proposed changes to the regulation defining fiduciary advice and to the exemptions for conflicts and compensation for investment advice to plans, participants (including...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
In Thole v. U.S. Bank, N.A., 140 S Ct. 1615 (2020), the Supreme Court, in a five to four decision authored by Justice Kavanaugh, held that participants in an ERISA defined benefit pension plan did not have standing under...more
By this point, most people in the employee benefits space have heard about the MOVEit and Retirement Clearing House (RCH) cyber incidents, which could directly impact employers’ benefit plans. The MOVEit file transfer...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
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 U.S. District Court judge threw out a case against Microsoft which claimed that the BlackRock LifePath Index Funds suite of target-date funds was an imprudent investment choice for their plan participants....more
A plan sponsor was spared from a 403(b) lawsuit, but the advisor is still on the hook. Two plaintiffs filed a complaint in Texas federal court against their employer, Legacy Counseling Center, Inc. the plan’s manager,...more
On December 30, the Department of Treasury (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) released a notice of proposed rules relating to the use of an electronic medium for retirement plan participant elections and...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
Passed by Congress in late 2019, the SECURE Act contained the most significant changes to qualified retirement plans (QRPs) and IRAs since the Pension Protection Act of 2006. Notably, the SECURE Act eliminated the...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
In response to the continued proliferation of lawsuits against retirement plan fiduciaries, fiduciary liability insurers are raising rates, limiting coverage, and expanding their due diligence of fiduciary processes...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
As the stock market remains choppy and we trying to figure out whether we are in a recession, it’s important to remember that participants will continue to make bad investment decisions....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
Americans hold a considerable percentage of their wealth in retirement accounts. Recent changes to the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”), as well as proposed regulations, have introduced new rules altering the required...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 IRS recently issued Notice 2022-27, providing a six-month extension of the temporary relief from the physical presence requirement for certain plan elections (including spousal consents) required to be witnessed by a plan...more