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Government Affairs
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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The IRS has announced cost-of-living adjustments affecting dollar limitations for pension plans and other retirement-related items for tax year 2020. The 2020 limits are contained in Notice 2019-59, released Nov. 6.
The limits for 2020 are as follows:
The limitation under Code Section 402(g)(1)...
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While open multiple employer plans can be very effective for many small businesses, they may not be for everyone, a new white paper warns.
Proponents of open MEPs hail them as a means of reducing both the burden and cost of sponsoring a retirement plan for smaller employers, but as MassMutual...
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Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia will be able to participate in drafting the department's new fiduciary rule, the Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 29.
While he was a partner at the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher law firm, Scalia served as counsel for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce appellants in ...
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The American Retirement Association has submitted a comment letter recommending that the Department of Labor amend its regulations under Section 3(5) of ERISA in order to facilitate the sponsorship of DC plans maintained on behalf of multiple unrelated employers – open MEPs.
The Oct. 29 letter was...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for its approval the Comprehensive Premium Filing Instructions for 2020. They include a summary of the key changes from the 2019 Comprehensive Premium Filing Instructions.
The instructions provide...
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The retirement plan world of 2019 is not that of 1995, or 1983, or 1974. And yet, there are important features of years past that laid the groundwork for where we are now — or perhaps, are even making an impact today.
In an Oct. 23 session of the ASPPA Annual Conference, John P. Griffin, Principal...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has issued guarantee limits for single-employer plans for 2020.
The guarantee limits for single-employer plans that fail in 2020 will be 3.65% higher than the limits that applied for 2019, due to indexing ERISA requires. The guarantee limits for...
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In a move estimated to save plans and participants $2.4 billion over the next decade, the Department of Labor (DOL) has unveiled a new, optional, electronic delivery safe harbor for retirement plans.
The Honorable Preston Rutledge, Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits...
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Carol Weiser, Benefits Tax Counsel at the Treasury Department, announced some good news about the deadline for amending plans for the newly final hardship withdrawal regulations at the ASPPA Annual Conference on Oct. 22.
Timing of Amendments for Final Hardship Regulations
Appearing at the...
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If your workforce includes recent college graduates – or even not-so-recent college graduates – it’s likely that some of them have debt associated with their college years – and just as likely that it’s hampering their retirement savings.
Any number of studies have chronicled the impact of this...
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The American Retirement Association in an Oct. 8 letter to IRS Employee Plans Division Director Robert Choi reiterated its concern over aspects of the final hardship distribution regulations. Those regulations were issued in September.
Terming it an “urgent matter,” the ARA told Choi that “the...
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has put forward a comprehensive labor proposal that seeks to scale back the broad protections offered by ERISA preemption and resurrect the DOL’s fiduciary rule.
The presidential candidate released a 14-page proposal on Oct. 3, “Empowering American Workers and Raising...
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ASPPA has received several reports of incorrect Form 5558 acknowledgments or extension denials being received by plans that had timely filed to extend the filing deadline for their 2018 Form 5500. In some instances, the acknowledgments are reflecting the extension deadline of Oct. 15, 2019 for off-...
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Legislation approved recently by the U.S. House of Representatives would restrict the use of pre-dispute arbitration agreements – potentially including their use in workplace retirement plans.
Many retirement plans include provisions requiring employees and plan participants to arbitrate any...
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Eugene Scalia, President Trump’s nominee to head the Labor Department, was approved Sept. 24 by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The full Senate will now vote on his nomination, though a date has not yet been set.
Scalia was approved by the HELP Committee on a 12-...
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The American Retirement Association (ARA) has raised concerns with the New York City Council about the application of ERISA in relation to a retirement savings program for private-sector employees under consideration.
In a Sept. 23 hearing before the NYCC’s Committee on Civil Service and Labor,...
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The Treasury Department and IRS have published final regulations on hardship distribution options – and there are some changes, and clarifications, from the proposed version.
You’ll recall that the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (BBA 2018) directed the Secretary of the Treasury to “modify §1.401(k...
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The IRS has revised Form 4852, Substitute for Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, or Form 1099-R, Distributions from Pensions, Annuities, Retirement or Profit-Sharing Plans, IRAs, Insurance Contracts, Etc.
Form 4852 serves as a substitute for Forms W-2, W-2c, and 1099-R and is completed when an...
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