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Regulatory Compliance
In a positive sign that lawmakers are committed to fixing several errors contained in the SECURE 2.0 Act, the House and Senate have just released a draft technical corrections bill, including changes to allow catch-up contributions and provide parity for Starter 401(k)s championed by the American...
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The parties in an excessive fee suit have come to terms—on at least one aspect of the litigation, though the bulk remains to be appealed.
The suit in question involves Genentech’s $7.6 billion (33,693 participant) 401(k) plan. The plaintiff is one Matthew Wehner (represented by Shepherd, Finkelman...
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Like many of you, I have spent a fair amount of time over the past couple of weeks reading and analyzing the impact and import of the new fiduciary rule proposal—not to mention the legal pundits who seek to tell us what they think it means, or might mean, regardless of what the proposal actually...
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On Nov. 3, the Department of Labor published its proposal to (1) redefine an “investment advice fiduciary” under ERISA and (2) also modify the prohibited transaction exemptions available to such fiduciaries. That is, the proposal would (1) change who is an ERISA fiduciary and (2) the conditions...
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Happy Birthday, ERISA!
It’s been 50 years since the Congress passed landmark legislation that protected the savings of American workers and—arguably—created an entire industry. It’s now time for the golden anniversary.
The American Retirement Association announced that it and eight associations...
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The IRS has prepared the draft instructions for the Form 5329 for reporting additional taxes on qualified plans, including Roth and traditional IRAs and other tax-favored accounts from 2023.
Employers, plan administrators and retirement plan professionals may find it worthwhile to remind plan...
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The release of a proposed regulation that provides guidance on the “long-term part-time employee” (LTPTE) rules a mere 25 days before they’re effective places too great a burden on plan sponsors to comply, the American Retirement Association (ARA) wrote in a letter to the Internal Revenue Service (...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on Nov. 28 published a final rule amending its regulation on Allocation of Assets in Single-Employer Plans by substituting a new table for selecting the retirement rate category.
The new table will be used to determine the applicable expected...
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The guidance the IRS just issued in Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc.) 2023-37 on qualified and 403(b) pre-approved plans made some significant changes in order to conform, clarify, and update the rules. Here’s a look at some of the key changes, which generally became effective on Nov. 21, 2023, with...
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On Nov. 24, 2023—yes, the day after Thanksgiving!—the Department of Treasury and Internal Revenue Service released a proposed regulation (Prop. Reg.) providing much-anticipated guidance on the “long-term part-time employee” (LTPTE) rules that were first added to the tax code in 2019. These rules...
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The IRS in Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc.) 2023-37 has issued fresh guidance on qualified pre-approved plans and 403(b) pre-approved plans which combines, conforms, clarifies, and updates rules for those plans set forth in prior revenue procedures.
Rules for Pre-Approved Plans
Rev. Proc. 2023-...
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The IRS has released a draft of the Form 1099-R to be used in 2024. This is an early release draft of the form, as well as its instructions, which the IRS is providing only to inform taxpayers, including benefits recipients.
The form is used to provide information to recipients about...
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A recent appellate court ruling that upheld a district court’s rejection of expert witness testimony has been raised as a defense in an excessive fee suit.
The suit in question involved the fiduciaries of the $5.2 billion L3Harris Retirement Savings Plan—a suit that in March 2022 claimed the...
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You have been instructed to terminate a defined benefit plan and a 401(k) plan as soon as possible. The DB plan is not covered by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), and there are no safe-harbor contributions under the 401(k) plan, so you prepare the paperwork with today as the date of...
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It has been nearly a year since Congress passed the SECURE 2.0 Act. As the name of the bill suggests, that law was the second significant retirement savings policy bill enacted in the span of five years.
A year later, while most practitioners and retirement plan sponsors are focused on the...
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As we make our way through November and into December, this is truly my favorite time of the year. I refer not to Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hannukah, but to 2023 Contribution Estimates Season.
I enjoy being able to provide guidance during this slower time of the year, as opposed to April or...
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After denying a request to extend the comment period for its proposed guidance to update the definition of an investment advice fiduciary, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced that the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) will hold an online hearing beginning Dec. 12.
According to...
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Good news from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC): both its multiemployer and single-employer insurance programs are healthy, and are in an even better financial position than they were at the start of 2023.
The PBGC—which protects the retirement benefits of more than 31 million...
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The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), the IRS, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on Nov. 17 released informational copies of the 2023 Form 5500 Series. They have been released online.
These versions of the Form 5500, Form 5500-SF, and Form...
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It’s been a couple of fast-moving days for the Department of Labor’s (DOL) proposal to amend the definition of investment advice fiduciary, as the House GOP has stepped up efforts to block the DOL from implementing its proposal, while the department has now denied a request to extend the comment...
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