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Regulatory Compliance
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) set about providing revenue in response to claims as soon as it was established in 1974 with the enactment of ERISA. The PBGC makes figures available on the parties and industry segments to which it makes payments, and it has updated that data through...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has proposed modifications to the Form 5500 and also to its Schedule R (Retirement Plan Information) for reporting about the 2020 plan year.
Form 5500
The PBGC is proposing minor modifications to the Form 5500 Series to improve the accuracy of...
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The IRS has just announced in Notice 2019-60 that it is providing additional temporary nondiscrimination relief for closed definedbenefit plans through 2020.
Notice 2019-60 provides additional temporary nondiscrimination relief for DB plans that provide ongoing accruals but that have been amended...
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New survey results by HealthSavings Administrators finds that employers overwhelmingly outpace benefits professionals in viewing HSAs as a retirement planning tool.
The survey of 270 benefits professionals and employers found that 90% of surveyed employers, benefit consultants, benefit brokers...
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On Oct. 22, the Department of Labor (DOL) released a proposed rule that would provide the ability to default participants into electronic disclosure of certain required participant documents. This week, we’d like to know what you think, and how you’d improve/modify that proposal, if at all.
As...
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Your company has a 401(k) plan. You just acquired another company, and it has SIMPLE IRA. You have learned that a company that offers a SIMPLE IRA cannot also sponsor another plan. What do you do?
A recent blog post from DWC – The 401(k) Experts offers some ideas.
“Mixing the worlds of 401(k)...
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The IRS has issued proposed regulations updating the life expectancy tables that apply for purposes of computing required minimum distributions (RMDs) from qualified retirement plans. The proposed rules under Code Section 401(a)(9) were published in today’s Federal Register.
The life expectancy...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on Nov. 7 posted a table showing the applicable present values of the maximum PBGC guaranteed benefit for 2020 plan years.
The table shows the present value of the maximum PBGC guaranteed benefit under Code Section 436(d)(3)(A)(ii) and ERISA Section...
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At last, it’s official – the Internal Revenue Service has announced the contribution and benefit limits for 2020!
The IRS announced this and other changes in Notice 2019-59, posted today here. The guidance provides cost-of-living adjustments affecting dollar limitations for pension plans and other...
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The IRS has announced cost-of-living adjustments affecting dollar limitations for pension plans and other retirement-related items for tax year 2020. The 2020 limits are contained in Notice 2019-59, released Nov. 6.
The limits for 2020 are as follows:
The limitation under Code Section 402(g)(1)...
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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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Few read mandated fee disclosures; the disclosures may mislead more than they inform.
In 2012, I analyzed the EBSA’s fee disclosure regulations. Here’s part of the abstract from my paper.
“Over the next 10 years, let’s increase the fees paid by individual account plans, like the 401(k), by...
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What’s a plan fiduciary to do when a participant’s designated beneficiary is responsible for the participant’s death?
That was the case in Estate of Brownell v. Lyczak (D.N.J., No. 18-16803, 10/25/19). As it turns out, on Dec. 30, 2017, Colleen Brownell was killed; on Feb. 1, 2019 the defendant in...
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In a case with huge implications for the impact of plan disclosures on starting the clock on the timing of filing suit in ERISA cases, the federal government says that “actual knowledge” means just that.
In an amicus brief filed with U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco and...
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The American Retirement Association has submitted a comment letter recommending that the Department of Labor amend its regulations under Section 3(5) of ERISA in order to facilitate the sponsorship of DC plans maintained on behalf of multiple unrelated employers – open MEPs.
The Oct. 29 letter was...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for its approval the Comprehensive Premium Filing Instructions for 2020. They include a summary of the key changes from the 2019 Comprehensive Premium Filing Instructions.
The instructions provide...
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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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A simplified employee plan (SEP) is a type of defined contribution plan that is funded exclusively with employer contributions.
For years before 2002, contributions could not exceed 15% of each eligible employee’s compensation. After EGTRRA and the Job Creation and Worker Assistance Act of 2002,...
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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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The retirement plan world of 2019 is not that of 1995, or 1983, or 1974. And yet, there are important features of years past that laid the groundwork for where we are now — or perhaps, are even making an impact today.
In an Oct. 23 session of the ASPPA Annual Conference, John P. Griffin, Principal...
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