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Regulatory Compliance
Pension income stream products typically involve an up-front lump sum payment to a pension recipient in exchange for the rights to that recipient’s future pension income payments. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in a recent notice provides guidance on the responsibilities of...
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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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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on April 27 announced that it is proposing amendments to its premium payments regulation. The proposal applies to both single-employer and multiemployer plans.The penalty for late payment of a premium is a percentage of the amount paid late multiplied...
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The IRS on April 26 issued revised procedures for applications for a suspension of benefits under a multiemployer defined benefit pension plan that is in critical and declining status. The revised procedures are contained in Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc.) 2016-27.Under the new revenue procedure, an...
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The IRS on April 26 issued revised procedures for applications for a suspension of benefits under a multiemployer defined benefit pension plan that is in critical and declining status. The revised procedures are contained in Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc.) 2016-27.Under the new revenue procedure, an...
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A new survey of 117 retirement plan service providers by the SPARK Institute found that nearly 80% are still evaluating risks and requirements of the regulations (one wonders how that isn’t 100%), and 60% indicated that key parts of the regulation are still not clear (ditto).Indeed, the survey...
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I was recently asked by a reporter if the new fiduciary regulation was “needed.” The question caught me a bit off guard, because having been in “figure out how to deal with this” mode for most of the past year, I had long since moved past “why” and “if” to “when” and “how.”After a quick pause, I...
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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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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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Some retirees and IRA holders who turned age 70½ in 2015 had to take required minimum distributions (RMDs) by April 1. Other retirees and IRA holders must take them by New Year’s Eve, as the IRS recently reminded. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has taken the opportunity to...
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The IRS website has a wealth of resources for retirement plan professionals. Nonetheless, it can be difficult to find the information one needs. But there are ways to find what one needs, notes an article that appeared in Plan Consultant.The IRS homepage may not provide much that is of interest to...
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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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Everyone is well aware of the need for cybersecurity and protecting the privacy of data. But there is an additional concern for retirement plan fiduciaries — they are important to fulfilling fiduciary duty.In a recent posting on the ML Benebits blog, Matthew Hawes and Patrick Rehfield argue that...
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Third-party administrators (TPAs) got some good news, and some much-need clarity, in the final fiduciary regulation.While “producing” TPAs that act as a plan’s investment advisor would, of course, need to keep in mind the provisions of the new regulations that focus on the advisor role, those new...
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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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When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. So goes the oft-quoted maxim — and recent assessments suggest that it even may apply for those who anticipate that the fiduciary rule the Department of Labor (DOL) released on April 6 may create challenges.A recent report from Cerulli Associates, as well...
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A provision in the Department of Labor’s (DOL) 2015 proposed fiduciary rule that would have had a significant impact on participant education has been modified in the final rule issued April 6. The revised provision aligns with recommendations made by the American Retirement Association.In the...
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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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