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Government Affairs
The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) granted a prohibited transaction exemption for certain entities with specified relationships to Deutsche Bank AG.PTE 2015-15, published in the Sept. 4 Federal Register, will allow those entities to continue to rely on PTE 84-...
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Congress returns from its summer break next week, and House Republicans are wasting no time reengaging in oversight of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule re-proposal.On Sept. 10, two subcommittees of the House Financial Services Committee are planning to hold a joint hearing on the...
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The Department of Labor (DOL) is moving ahead with its effort to make it easier for states to offer retirement initiatives without running afoul of federal law, sending a proposed rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review Sept. 1.The action, noted in an OMB website posting, could...
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The Department of Labor (DOL) has tentatively rejected requests by three global banks to continue managing U.S. pension funds. Bloomberg reports that in July it reviewed letters from the DOL to Deutsch Bank AG, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLc and UBS Group AG informing the banks of its stance.The...
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The leadership of ACOPA met with representatives from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) in May of this year. Discussion included the changes to the PBGC termination forms and instructions for post-distribution certifications filed on or after March 1, 2015, and the ability to do...
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The IRS on Aug. 25 released a draft version of the Form 5500-EZ to be used in benefit plan reporting concerning 2015. The draft is for informational purposes only, however; it is not to be used for reporting.The IRS revised it to require reporting the number of active participants at the beginning...
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There were four days of hearings on the Department of Labor’s proposed fiduciary rule and I kept waiting… and watching… and waiting. But it never came up. And that surprised me.You see, I was fully expecting someone to ask these two questions: “What about individuals who actually want to be...
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The Department of Labor (DOL) stands ready to assist state governments when they work to establish public retirement plans for private-sector workers, regardless of whether those plans are covered by ERISA, according to EBSA chief Phyllis Borzi.The White House set the tone with President Obama’s...
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Require general partners to do a better job of disclosing private equity fees. That’s the message that treasurers from states in every region of the United States, as well as two of its largest cities, sent to Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White in a recent letter.The treasurers...
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The IRS is seeking applicants to serve on the advisory committee that provides advice and public input on the IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities (TE/GE) Division’s tax administration activities. It made the announcement in News Release 2015-100.The IRS seeks to fill vacancies for the positions...
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Renowned French author André Gide once famously remarked, “Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” So it felt at times during Day Four of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) public hearing on its fiduciary rule.To be fair,...
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Responding to a bipartisan (though primarily Republican) letter from more than a dozen members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez says his agency will “move forward towards issuing a Final Rule” on the agency’s “conflict of interest” proposal.In a letter addressed to...
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Marcy Supovitz, President-Elect of the American Retirement Association, testified at the public hearing on the Department of Labor’s reproposed fiduciary rule Aug. 12.Supovitz' testimony concentrated on the American Retirement Association’s innovative proposal to create a separate, streamlined...
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The second day of public hearings on the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule reproposal was highlighted by a debate over the economic impact that the rule will have on the financial services industry.When a rule of this significance is issued, it must be accompanied by an analysis from the...
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The first day of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) public hearing on its re-proposed fiduciary rule Aug. 10 veered from the informative to the absurd as the department’s rule makers heard from a broad array of stakeholders on the complex subject.Labor Secretary Thomas Perez has repeatedly promised to...
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The public comment period may have closed, but a group of U.S. Senators has weighed in on the proposed fiduciary regs — and lent their support to a recommendation of the American Retirement Association.The letter, signed by Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (Ore.), as well as fellow...
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The public comment period may have closed, but a group of U.S. Senators has weighed in on the proposed fiduciary regs — and lent their support to a recommendation of the American Retirement Association.The letter, signed by Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (Ore.), as well as fellow...
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There has been no shortage of bad news for public pension systems from coast to coast. But the U.S. Census Bureau has just released some good news — the assets of state and local public pension systems grew in 2014.The report, “2014 Annual Survey of Public Pensions: State and Locally Administered...
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Among the more than 800 comment letters filed on the Labor Department’s fiduciary proposal is one from a fellow federal agency that claims the proposal fails to adequately estimate its cost or the number of firms affected by it.The filing by the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy...
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Expressing concerns that the Labor Department’s fiduciary proposal is “…motivated by an insatiable desire to reengineer the retirement services industry and control the mode and manner that Americans save for retirement,” a group of Republican congressmen is calling on the DOL to withdraw the rule....
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