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ERISA
On March 24, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) announced that it seeks to revise forms that allow it to collect information it needs to implement Section 303(k) of ERISA and Internal Revenue Code Section 430(k). It also seeks that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) extend its...
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The recent White House budget proposal sets aside $6.5 million in funding for the Department of Labor, along with waiver authority, to support state efforts to implement state-based automatic enrollment IRAs or 401(k)-type programs.Currently more than a dozen state legislatures are actively...
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A 401(k) revenue-sharing lawsuit finally got its day before the U.S. Supreme Court.While the nation’s high court was ostensibly focused on how ERISA’s statute of limitations was to be applied in challenging fiduciary actions, there was also a brisk discussion among the justices about the what, how...
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ASPPA’s Government Affairs Committee (GAC) recently filed comments with the IRS regarding proposed changes to IRS Form 5500. The comment letter was in response to a proposal published in the Dec. 23, 2014 Federal Register. Under the proposal, new questions will be added to the form and/or its...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is seeking input on the implementation of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act (MPRA) of 2014. The MPRA, enacted Dec. 16, 2014, included provisions that amended ERISA by replacing the rules for the partition of multiemployer plans and adding rules for...
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A growing number of employers plan to act this year to curb the cost of future Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation premiums, according to Aon Hewitt. Not all of the employers the human resources firm recently surveyed have an open plan. In fact, a majority have a plan that is either frozen or...
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The ERISA public disclosure website — which houses filings by health and pension plans of private employers — is headed for the cloud. According to Federal Times, the Department of Labor (DOL) is choosing a vendor that can provide a FedRAMP-certified cloud for this purpose.The DOL’s request for...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on Jan. 29 announced that the Office of Management and Budget has approved revisions it made to the forms and instructions for standard and distress terminations and missing participants.Under the revisions, a plan administrator of a plan terminating...
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The White House memo on the DOL’s proposal to redefine what constitutes a fiduciary continues to engender negative reaction. Tim Pawlenty, CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable, weighed in on Jan. 28, according to ThinkAdvisor, calling the memo “overly broad” in its condemnation of the financial...
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The 114th Congress has gotten off to a quick start with retirement legislation.During the week of Jan. 25, Collins-Nelson Retirement Security Act of 2015 (S. 266) was introduced in the Senate, while a companion bill, the Retirement Security Act of 2015 (H.R. 557) was introduced in the House. The...
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The ERISA Advisory Council has thrown its support behind the notion of multiple employer plans as a means of encouraging plan formation.The recommendation came as part of a series of suggestions regarding outsourcing employee benefit plan services following hearings held by the ERISA Advisory...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) was not arbitrary and capricious when it concluded that Kentucky Bancshares was obliged to comply with the Section 1107 of the Pension Protection Act (PPA) as well as ERISA’s standard termination requirements when it terminated its retirement plan and...
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A year ago, President Obama touted the voluntary MyRA in his State of the Union Address — but the White House has a lot more to say about retirement this year — and it’s a lot less voluntary.According to a White House fact sheet, the administration is touting a series of retirement tax reform...
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Funding levels of pension plans sponsored by the S&P 1500 fell by 9 percentage points in 2014, from 88% to 79%. According to Mercer, the plans’ collective deficits more than doubled last year, reaching $504 billion at year-end.The plans had been doing well in 2014, Mercer said, having benefited...
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The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has outlined the conditions for determining the existence of a partial plan termination, ruling on the fifth appeal of what it called a “seemingly interminable class action suit.”The ruling came in a case filed just two months short of 19 years ago, in which...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on Jan. 12 issued a draft of the 2015 premium filing form and instructions. It provides information for plans paying premiums for plan years beginning in 2015, including instructions for all the particular forms of data that must be reported.The...
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A regulation that would allow for a “window” period for giving out the annual notice required in most 401(k) plans appears to be heading for a spring 2015 publication date — and that could be good news for your plan sponsor clients.A new addition to the November 2014 DOL guidance plan was a project...
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In the process of enforcing the law, the Pension and Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) needs to keep in mind that its mission is to preserve and protect defined benefit plans. That is one of the underlying themes in the first annual report of the PBGC participant and plan sponsor advocate....
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All disbursements from a retirement plan scheduled to be made at the same time are treated as a single distribution even if they are sent to multiple destinations. That new rule becomes mandatory as 2015 dawns, the IRS has reminded taxpayers in the Dec. 23 issue of its e-newsletter, Employee Plans...
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Turning 40 is one of those storied moments — and not just for individuals. ERISA turned 40 this year, affording an opportunity to take stock of its impact and whether it is functioning as intended. An Oct. 28 panel discussion at the 2014 ASPPA Annual Conference, held at National Harbor, Md....
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