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Government Affairs
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UPDATE, MARCH 14: The provision described below was subsequently withdrawn. For more on that development, click here. The Connecticut Retirement Security Board has taken another step forward with its implementation plan by introducing legislation creating the Connecticut Retirement Security...
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A lawsuit brought against the IRS over its handling of a company’s application to fix errors under the agency’s Voluntary Compliance Program (VCP) is advancing.According to Bloomberg BNA, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Richard J. Leon on March 2 in Information Systems and...
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IRS Employee Plans Division (EP) Director Robert Choi on Feb. 23 issued a memo to EP determinations and examinations employees that sets forth interim guidelines they are to use in reviewing multiemployer collectively bargained plans that provide for a normal retirement age (NRA) earlier than 62,...
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Another testing season has come and gone, and it is time for ASPPA’s IRS Q&A Subcommittee to start gathering questions. Did you and your colleagues come across a brain-teaser of a situation while doing testing? Are you facing a conundrum on a last minute or delinquent PPA restatement?Chances...
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Even as the publication of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule nears, the GOP is gearing up to undermine the funding for its implementation.House Republican leaders are urging rank-and-file GOP lawmakers to back a budget resolution that provides $1.07 trillion in discretionary spending...
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The Department of Labor (DOL) is planning to study how retirement planning strategies and decisions evolve — and it would like to know what you think about the effort.The DOL’s Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) is soliciting comments on the usefulness of a forthcoming information...
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The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on March 1 received a proposal from the Department of Labor (DOL) to revise the Form 5500. The proposal is part of a long-term strategic effort the DOL is undertaking with the IRS and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) to modernize and improve...
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The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has been looking into replacement rates — and it’s got some suggestions for the Department of Labor (DOL).The GAO report, prepared at the request of Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and...
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On Feb. 23, 2016, the American Retirement Association (ARA) filed a comment letter with the IRS suggesting enhancements that can be made to the IRS pre-approved plan program for plans subject to Internal Revenue Code Sections 401(a) or 403(b). The letter also requests a meeting to discuss the ARA...
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If you thought things were going to be quiet between now and the anticipated publication of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule next month — well, you’d be wrong.Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) has now weighed in on the issue, claiming that “the bureaucrats bullied it through.”...
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On Feb. 22, 2016, the American Retirement Association (ARA) filed a comment letter with the IRS regarding the new compliance questions to be added to the Form 5500, potentially for the 2016 plan year reports.In the letter, the ARA requested a meeting with the IRS to collaborate on how to make the...
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A staff report from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs sharply criticizes the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary proposal and what it described as a “flawed process” in handing down that rule.
The report, “The Labor Department’s Fiduciary Rule: How a Flawed...
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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will proceed with its work on investment advice standards rules and oversight of advisors. SEC Chair Mary Jo White made that announcement on Feb. 19 at the Practising Law Institute conference in Washington, D.C.According to Investment News, White said...
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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will proceed with its work on investment advice standards rules and oversight of advisors. SEC Chair Mary Jo White made that announcement on Feb. 19 at the Practising Law Institute conference in Washington, D.C.According to Investment News, White said...
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The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has made some corrections to the calculations of replacement rates — the ratio of Social Security recipients’ benefits to their past earnings — that it had released in December. CBO Director Keith Hall made the announcement in a Feb. 10 CBO blog post.It is,...
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The Department of Labor (DOL) is rolling out an initiative focused on the investigation of benefit payment practices, focusing on three key areas.According to a blog post by the law firm of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, the new initiative is focused on the defined benefit plans of a number of...
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Small business retirement plans are again under attack. Buried in a Treasury Department proposal to make it easier for large corporations to close their defined benefit plans to new entrants is a provision that will make it harder for small businesses to form new retirement plans or maintain their...
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A couple of powerful congressional voices have taken several financial services firms to task for characterizing the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule proposal as “unworkable” with dire consequences if enacted — while painting a very different picture for their investors.In a letter to...
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The IRS has proposed additional limitations on suspension of benefits applicable to certain pension plans under the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA).The IRS in RIN 1545-BN24 has proposed regulations that would provide guidance regarding a provision of the MPRA that governs the...
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The Obama administration’s final budget wasn’t a complete retread of its prior retirement plan proposals, but there wasn’t much good news for employer-sponsored retirement plans.Small business owners and small business retirement plans were once again targeted by a proposal that would limit the...
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