Government Affairs

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s (PBGC) Office of the Participant and Plan Sponsor Advocate reports progress in 2022, but adds in its 2022 annual report that there is more to be done.  Payments to Participants  The Office of the Advocate reports that in 2022, the PBGC paid more than $7... READ MORE

There are 92 provisions in the new SECURE 2.0 Act — and by at least one assessment, they are “almost universally good, with ‘good’ being defined as ‘helpful to the cause of promoting retirement security.’” Group Plan Systems’ Pete Swisher and Cherisha Chapman rank the Top 10 Impact Provisions — and... READ MORE

While it came down to the wire, both the House and Senate have now approved the much-anticipated SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 as part of the mammoth $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill.  For months, it was anticipated that Congress would attach a final SECURE 2.0 package to a year-end spending bill, but... READ MORE

Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) and Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) have introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) measure in the House and Senate, respectively, to nullify the Department of Labor’s recently finalized rule to greenlight environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing in federal pension plans... READ MORE

After months of speculation on whether the House and Senate would attach a final retirement security legislative package with a must-do, year-end spending bill, we now have an answer. While most were nestled all snug in their beds in the waning hours of Dec. 19, House and Senate leaders released... READ MORE

Or two. Or more. New Year’s Eve heralds more than the end of 2022. It also marks a number of deadlines that a plan and professionals serving it may want to keep in mind.  Plan Design Changes A plan generally must be amended by the end of the plan year to reflect changes an employer made during... READ MORE

The IRS announced on Dec. 8, 2022 that it will not be finalizing regulations it proposed on April 27 that prescribed mortality tables to be used by most pension plans. The proposed regulations would have affected participants in, beneficiaries of, employers maintaining, and administrators of... READ MORE

The current focus for this Congress may be on SECURE 2.0, but legislators from both parties and both houses of Congress have introduced a new retirement savings bill. The Retirement Savings for Americans Act was introduced by U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), and... READ MORE

An information letter recently released by the Department of Labor addresses the application of ERISA’s bonding requirements to a pooled employer plan (PEP) established under the SECURE Act.  More specifically, the letter clarifies that the application of the bonding requirements to employees of... READ MORE