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Fiduciary Governance
What is a short plan year? A recent blog post from DWC – The 401(k) Experts defines the term, but argues that what’s more important is why a short plan year exists.
The post points out that defining a short plan year is very easy: any plan year with fewer than 12 months. “Company-sponsored...
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Multiple employer plans (MEPs) are close — a provision in the pending SECURE Act would ease the rules restricting them, and the Department of Labor issued a final rule in July that makes it easier for small businesses to offer retirement savings plans to their workers through association retirement...
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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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According to a new white paper, a surprising number of plan sponsor representatives who oversee their companies’ 401(k) plans don’t realize they are fiduciaries under ERISA.
And some believe they can offload all their fiduciary responsibilities for investments to a third party. In fact, J.P....
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Halloween is the time of year when one’s thoughts turn to trick-or-treat, ghosts and goblins, and things that go bump in the night. But what keeps - or should keep – plan fiduciaries up at night?
Well, there are the things like…
Changing Providers
Industry surveys routinely point to a certain...
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Morgan Stanley has fended off a participant suit that a federal judge described as “opportunistic Monday-morning quarterbacking on the part of lawyers.”
In Patterson v. Stanley (2019 BL 384508, S.D.N.Y., No. 1:16-cv-06568-RJS, 10/7/19), U.S. Circuit Judge Richard J. Sullivan, sitting by...
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General Electric announced on Oct. 7 that it has taken three steps it believes will reduce its pension deficit by approximately $5 billion to $8 billion. GE already has closed its pension plan to new entrants, a step that became effective Jan. 1, 2012.
Here are the steps GE is taking, according to...
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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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Plan sponsors have a lot of responsibilities and often rely on others to help them keep their plan operating in accordance with the law. And yet, even with the most attentive plan sponsors, mistakes (still) occur.
Here’s a list of some of the most common missteps:
1. Not using the plan’s...
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A small plan participant’s bid to bring suit on behalf of tens of thousands of plans and millions of participants has been rejected by a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio denied a bid from plaintiff Theresa Brown to...
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The church plan exemption from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) has been built into ERISA since its adoption, and the specific provision stating that the exemption has not been significantly amended since 1983. But it has only been in the last decade or so that there have...
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Financial literacy has long been touted as something of a “silver bullet” in helping workers make better financial decisions – and now there’s a call to make it a mandatory employment offering.
Now, we all know that lots of workers get their first (and for many only) exposure to financial markets...
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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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Safe harbor 401(k) plans are the most popular type of 401(k) used by small businesses today. Unlike a traditional 401(k) plan, they automatically pass the ADP/ACP and top heavy nondiscrimination tests when certain contribution and participant disclosure requirements are met. This trade-off is well...
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Nominated to serve as Secretary of Labor, Eugene Scalia addressed numerous questions Sept. 19 about his past record representing various employer interests, as well as whether he would recuse himself in the forthcoming revamp of the DOL’s conflict of interest rule.
Scalia's comments came during a...
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Is your auditor a Jack of all trades, but a master of none? As the results of the Department of Labor (DOL) studies on audit quality shift the industry focus to the qualifications of employee benefit plan auditors, CPA firms with specialized retirement plan audit practices choose to demonstrate...
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Oct. 1, 2019 will bring more than just a new month — it also will herald a new EBSA. According to recent reports, the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration will be reorganized, effective that day.
The changes will expand the number of deputy assistant secretaries of labor...
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Phishing — sending scam emails — is still the most common way cybercriminals try to steal sensitive data. The IRS has issued some tips to help tax and other professionals from falling prey to such phishing expeditions.
In Tax Tip 2019-120, the IRS says that more than 90% of data thefts start from...
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Fiduciary duties are central to complying with rules and regulations, and ultimately to serving participants well. A recent blog entry argues that how a plan is governed is part of the equation in fulfilling them and offers suggestions regarding how to better go about it.
“It is not hyperbole to...
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Retirement planning can be a complicated process – and surveys suggest that most workers haven’t even attempted a guess. But even those who have can overlook some pretty significant factors that can have a dramatic impact on retirement readiness.
Here are some critical factors that are easy to get...
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