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Government Affairs
Lions and tigers and bears, oh, my! Well, maybe floods, fires and earthquakes, oh, my. If a disaster occurs, its effect on a retirement plan’s compliance with tax law and regulations just might not be prominent on the minds of plan administrators, service providers, employers and participants. But...
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The tax incentives currently extended to workplace retirement plans are a potential casualty of a tax reform proposal that was the subject of a Senate Finance Committee hearing that included testimony from American Retirement Association Director of Retirement Policy Judy Miller.Under the unlikely...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on May 13 issued an interim rule amending its regulations to significantly raise the per-day penalties under ERISA for failing to give proper notice.The new maximum amounts are $2,063 per day for civil penalties imposed under ERISA Section 4071 (...
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Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus, is leading a call for President Obama to issue an executive order to require government contractors to auto-enroll employees in retirement plans.In a May 5 letter signed by more than 65 Democratic lawmakers, Crowley urges the...
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The U.S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution April 28 disapproving of the Labor Department’s final fiduciary regulation. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 21 had passed H. J. Res. 88 by a vote of 22-14.The party line vote of 234-183 was enough to pass the measure...
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Legislation before the U.S. House would exclude Pension and Benefit Guaranty Corporation receipts and disbursements from the federal budget.H.R. 4955, the Pension and Budget Integrity Act of 2016, was introduced on April 15 by Rep. James Renacci (R-Ohio).The bill notes that ERISA did not include...
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The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on April 20 issued a report saying that two measures introduced in the House earlier this year that would require congressional approval of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule and would provide alternative fiduciary protection for consumers would...
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The House Education and the Workforce Committee on April 21 passed a resolution introduced just two days earlier that is intended to block the fiduciary rule the Department of Labor (DOL) issued in final form on April 6.By a 22-14 vote, the committee approved H.J. Res. 88, the measure introduced by...
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Sure you do — and we’ve developed a way for you to ask the Labor Department.On April 17, American Retirement Association CEO Brian Graff unveiled a new resource that we are making available to help gather and organize the myriad questions that you’re dealing with today — or that may emerge in the...
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A group of Republican senators has introduced a resolution to stop the Department of Labor’s (DOL) new conflict-of-interest rule.The resolution (S.J. Res. 33), which Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) introduced April 18, has 37 co-sponsors, including Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo...
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The fiduciary regulation may be final, but a trio of Republican lawmakers have introduced a resolution to block it.Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, along with Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Tax...
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In a major win for small business retirement plans and the efforts of ARA GAC, the Treasury Department and IRS have decided to withdraw certain provisions of proposed regulations relating to the nondiscrimination rules for cross-tested plans.The provisions, published in January as part of a broader...
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The Department of Labor (DOL) issued the final fiduciary rule on April 6; ASPPA will hold a webcast on April 14 to help plan administrators understand what it means and how they will be affected.In “The Final Conflicted Advice Regulation: What’s New and What Does it Mean for Plan Administrators,”...
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After a five-month comment period, four days of public hearings, more than 3,000 comment letters, some 300,000 petitions, and more than 100 meetings with stakeholders, nearly a year to the day that the Department of Labor (DOL) unveiled its “Conflicts of Interest” proposal, we have a final...
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In a big win for the advocacy efforts of the American Retirement Association, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) final fiduciary regulation provides a streamlined exemption for “level-to-level” advisor compensation.In a White House fact sheet released ahead of the final fiduciary regulation, the level...
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The IRS has found discriminatory plan designs among some defined benefit and defined contribution plans, as well as DB/DC combination plans. The IRS made the report on a portion of its Retirement Plans website, which it updated on April 1.The discriminatory plan designs the IRS identified are among...
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The IRS is providing a new option that allows financial institutions service providers that offer a plan document to request a closing agreement on behalf of all adopters that missed the deadline for adopting a pre-approved plan. The IRS reports the option on a portion of its website devoted to...
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As the industry anticipates publication of the Labor Department’s fiduciary regulation this week, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has finished its review, according to a posting on the OMB’s website.The OMB has had the regulation under review since Jan. 28.Before agency rules are...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Multiemployer Program will run out of money in less than 20 years, says a new report by the PBGC. Its prescription: higher premiums.The PBGC on March 31 announced the release of “Insurance of Multiemployer Pension Plans: A Five Year Report,” the latest in...
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The drafting, redrafting, comment, revision, lather rinse repeat of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule certainly has been a protracted process. As we appear to be on the brink of its for-real introduction, it’s interesting to consider matters that follow in the wake of the big reveal —...
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