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Regulatory Compliance
Sometimes the most mundane details can be overlooked—which, for a plan, entails risk. In fulfilling the myriad responsibilities attendant to offering and running a plan, a retirement plan committee can be a great help.
Navigating increasingly complicated benefits administration—and against a...
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The plan document is not a suggestion; it’s a roadmap to compliance and competent and effective administration. But it’s not always given the regard it deserves—which can imperil a plan and those whom it ultimately was written to serve.
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Robert M. Kaplan, Director of Technical Education at...
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While the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) recovered $1.435 billion in direct payment to plans, participants and beneficiaries in fiscal year 2023, that number has been trending downward for the past few years.
According to a fact sheet released by EBSA,...
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The parties in an excessive fee suit—that also raised issues regarding an arbitration clause—are “…pleased that after years of hard-fought litigation, they are able to present for preliminary approval a proposed settlement.”
That settlement includes a cash payment of $4,000,000.00 (four million...
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Coming slightly more than a month after its first hearing on the Department of Labor’s proposed investment advice fiduciary rule, a second subcommittee of the House of Representatives debated the merits of the proposal, with the battle lines drawn between the two parties.
The Feb. 15 hearing by...
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Those who make filings with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) now must use the agency’s new e-Filing portal. It became operational on Feb. 1, 2024.
The PBGC had announced on Jan. 8 that it would launch a new and improved e-filing portal at the start of the next month. The launch of...
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Following the assessment of an independent fiduciary that the settlement terms were reasonable, the parties in a 401(k) excessive fee suit have moved for approval by a federal judge.
The suit was filed back on Aug. 11, 2021—with plaintiffs Chris Carrigan, Michael Venti, and Sylvain Yelle (...
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A new report offers a new level of transparency on recordkeeping fees paid by the large plan targets of excessive fee suits—and calls out a number of misleading claims and benchmarks used by the plaintiffs’ bar in bringing those suits.
According to the announcement from Encore Fiduciary, formerly...
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Loans to pay for an education: an investment in the future, but also a drag on it. Research and recent insights suggest that while loans help fund steps intended to improve one’s position, in some ways they can threaten future security by affecting retirement saving. It’s a debt whose effects...
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The IRS has made the 2023 Cumulative List of Changes in Plan Qualification Requirements for Defined Contribution Qualified Pre-Approved Plans available. The new list, contained in Notice 2024-3, provides updated listings of required modifications and information packages for DC plans.
The 2023...
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Employer plan sponsors and fiduciaries that are subject to the prohibited transaction rules as set forth in ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) will want to take note of new procedures for granting administrative transaction exemptions.
The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security...
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One provision in particular in the SECURE 2.0 Act is receiving the lion’s share of attention from retirement plan sponsors and participants. Section 110 allows student loan payments to be treated as elective deferrals for purposes of matching contributions.
Yet guidance on how it will happen is...
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There have been significant changes to the IRS Pre-Approved Defined Contribution Plan Program, and two of the IRS officials involved in the thick of it recently provided a refresher on the program rules and recent developments.
Milo Atlas of the Retirement Plan Forms and Publications Office at...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on Jan. 19 announced that it has chosen the firms that will participate in its Smaller Asset Managers Program (SAMP).
SAMP is intended to reduce barriers to competition and create opportunities for smaller asset investment management firms. SAMP...
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The Treasury Department, the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) have announced that they will issue a joint request for information (RFI) seeking public input to help them review the effectiveness of existing...
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The Department of Labor (DOL) announced Jan. 18 that its Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) released a proposed regulation on automatic portability transactions under SECURE 2.0.
The DOL said automatic portability transactions aim to help workers keep track of their retirement...
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On the heels of the recent IRS guidance on pension-linked emergency savings accounts (PLESAs), the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) followed suit on Jan. 17, issuing additional guidance in the form of FAQs.
Included in Section 127 of the SECURE 2.0 Act...
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The IRS has issued final regulations updating the minimum present value requirements for pension plan distributions. The IRS issued the final regulations on Jan. 19.
The IRS had issued proposed regulations in 2016 that updated the minimum present value requirements for defined benefit plan...
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Plan professionals may find it useful to know that plan sponsors continue to make participants’ retirement security a priority, and are boosting their work to enhance it.
JP Morgan, in its fifth Defined Contribution Plan Sponsor Survey, which provides the results of an online survey of 788...
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Often there can be confusion in more ways than one when trying to understand why actuaries report liabilities for defined benefit plans.
The reason actuaries report plan liabilities in different manners has to do with the interplay between interest rates, the economy, and the reporting purpose....
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