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Government Affairs
The IRS has issued the Instructions for the Form 8955-SSA: Annual Registration Statement Identifying Separated Participants with Deferred Vested Benefits to be used for 2019 reporting.
The Form 8955-SSA is the designated successor to the Schedule SSA to the Form 5500. It is used to satisfy the...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)’s Comprehensive Premium Filing Instructions for 2020 plan years are now available. The PBGC announced on Jan. 10 that the Office of Management and Budget has approved the instructions and they are now available on the PBGC website.
My Plan...
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The California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Board has released a report on the first six months of the Golden State’s retirement savings program for those whose employers do not offer a retirement plan.
Under the program, California employers with five or more employees that don’t offer a...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation needs transformational change, says the agency’s Participant and Plan Sponsor Advocate in an annual report.
In “2019 Annual Report of the Participant and Plan Sponsor Advocate,” Constance Donovan calls for changes that she argues would better enable the...
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Just ahead of the holidays, President Trump signed into law the SECURE Act, arguably the most comprehensive retirement plan bill since the Pension Protection Act (PPA) 2006, and one that has many provisions that are effective immediately.
Find out what you need to know from two of the retirement...
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ASPPA is always providing information and insights that will be valuable to its members! Following is a summary of upcoming webcasts and events.
Live Webcasts
ASPPA Webcast: Loans: Correcting Taxation, Qualification and Fiduciary Failures
Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020
2:00 - 3:40 p.m. ET
Speaker:...
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The ASPPA 4th Quarter Washington Update provided an overview of new rules with which one must comply, as well as proposed regulations and rules and possible obligations of which a plan and those who serve it should be aware and mindful.
American Retirement Association Director of Technical...
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The House of Representatives on Dec. 17 approved the “minibus” government funding bill that contains the bipartisan Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act, moving the bill one step closer to enactment. The bill passed by a 297-120 margin.
Contained in the Further...
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While the SECURE Act is garnering most of the attention, it’s not the only retirement-related legislation included in the spending bill now headed to the Senate.
Distributions for Qualified Disasters
In addition to the SECURE Act, Congress added special disaster-related rules for the use of...
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The most significant piece of retirement legislation in a decade could become a reality, after all.
Hill staff worked throughout the weekend to put the finishing touches on the nearly $1.4 trillion spending bill for FY 2020, which will likely be the last “legislative vehicle” for 2019 – and things...
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The IRS has extended by 2 years the deadline for amending pre-approved plans to adopt provisions allowed in last September’s final hardship withdrawal regulations. The extension is set forth in IRS Rev. Proc. 2020-09, issued Dec. 12.
The final regulations on hardship withdrawals specified that...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on Dec. 9 published a final rule amending its valuation regulation by substituting a new table for selecting the retirement rate category. The rule is effective Jan. 1, 2020.
The table is needed to compute the value of early retirement benefits as we...
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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and key Republican lawmakers added their voices to growing concerns over the effect a potential financial transaction tax (FTT) would have on retirement savings and the U.S. economy.
In a Dec. 5 hearing before the House Financial Services Committee to review...
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The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in 2019 expanded its Deceased Participants Program, its effort to identify Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) benefits being paid to deceased participants. The information is contained in the OIG’s Semiannual Report to Congress for the Period...
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The Bay State’s Securities Division of the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth has formally released new proposed fiduciary conduct standards for broker-dealers, agents, investment advisers and investment adviser representatives – but how does it view ERISA’s fiduciary standard?
The...
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Sens. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) have issued a white paper and technical explanation that discuss the challenges facing multiemployer pension plans and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) and also offer a multiemployer pension and recapitalization reform plan....
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There’s a move afoot on Capitol Hill to push back on the Department of Labor’s (DOL) expansion of the e-delivery safe harbor – and it’s bipartisan.
Reps. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) and Donald McEachin (D-VA) have reached out to their colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives, inviting them to...
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On Nov. 22, the American Retirement Association weighed in on the Labor Department’s e-delivery proposal.
The proposal – which fulfills a key component of President Trump’s August 2018 retirement security Executive Order – would allow plan administrators who satisfy specified conditions to provide...
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On Nov. 22, the American Retirement Association provided information to the Labor Department on the general disclosure framework under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), focusing on “design, delivery, and content.”
The Request for Information (RFI) accompanied a proposal...
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On Oct. 22, the Department of Labor (DOL) released a proposed rule that would provide the ability to default participants into electronic disclosure of certain required participant documents. This week, we’d like to know what you think, and how you’d improve/modify that proposal, if at all.
As...
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