Ted Godbout
By Ted Godbout 9/20/2019
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...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 9/13/2019
Under a new proposal put forward by an influential Democratic member of Congress, retirement assets could be factored into a new tax regime targeting higher-income taxpayers.
Labeling it as a proposal to help pay for a Social Security overhaul, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the ranking member on the...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 9/12/2019
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, has announced that the Committee will hold a hearing on Sept. 19 to consider the nomination of Eugene Scalia to serve as Secretary of Labor.
President Trump had announced in July – via...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 8/26/2019
Just before departing for Congress’ summer recess, a member of the Senate Finance Committee reintroduced ambitious legislation to provide for automatic IRA arrangements.
Introduced in the Senate by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), the Automatic IRA Act of 2019 (S. 2370) would require employers with...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 8/14/2019
While it’s not exactly been a smooth road over the past couple of decades, a new report says an even bumpier ride could be ahead for recordkeepers.
The report, “Long-term value creation in U.S. retirement” from McKinsey & Company, notes that while the 10-year bull market has propelled DC asset...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 7/29/2019
The Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee in recent remarks indicated that after the SECURE Act is enacted, he may move on legislation that would broadly require employers to maintain a 401(k) or 403(b) plan that covers all eligible employees.
SECURE Act
Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA) argued...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 7/24/2019
A senior Labor Department official suggests keeping an eye out for proposed guidance addressing electronic disclosure of retirement plan information.
Jeanne Wilson, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary with the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), said the...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 7/24/2019
At the opening session of the 2019 NAPA D.C. Fly-in Forum on July 23, NAPA Executive Director (and American Retirement Association CEO) Brian Graff noted that it’s a “hot mess” in Washington – both literally and figuratively.
Expressing his frustration that the bipartisan Setting Every Community...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 7/15/2019
Patrick Pizzella, the current Deputy Secretary of the Department of Labor, will take over as the Acting Labor Secretary in the wake of Alexander Acosta’s July 12 resignation.
Pizzella, who has served as the Deputy Secretary since April 2018, will likely serve as the Acting Secretary until a...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 7/10/2019
Paying their children’s expenses while caring for their parents, Gen X families are facing a precarious financial situation as they close in on retirement, a new report explains.
The study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), which examines key financial indicators of Gen X...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 7/3/2019
More than 20 years after the last such overhaul, on July 1 President Trump signed into law bipartisan legislation to revamp the Internal Revenue Service. The newly enacted Taxpayer First Act of 2019 (H.R. 3151) overhauls the IRS’ operations and tax administration systems and implements new taxpayer...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 6/21/2019
The House Ways & Means Committee has voted to extend a vast array of individual and corporate tax provisions, including special disaster-related rules for use of retirement funds.
Disaster Relief Assistance
The Committee late June 20 approved the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 6/19/2019
Not wasting any time, the Garden State has announced that it will hold a July 17 hearing in connection with its proposed new fiduciary standards.
According to an announcement in the New Jersey Register, the Bureau of Securities also simultaneously announced that it is extending the comment period...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 6/17/2019
Consistent with prior input from the American Retirement Association, New Jersey correctly excluded ERISA plan fiduciaries from the application of its proposed new fiduciary standards.
In a June 14 comment letter, the ARA – parent organization of the ASPPA/NTSA – expressed support for the proposed...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 6/17/2019
A new study suggests that employers that focus on the financial well-being of their workers have a significant opportunity to improve employees’ financial health, while also benefiting their business.
Conducted by the Financial Health Network on behalf of Morgan Stanley at Work, the survey of 1,...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 6/13/2019
An annual bellwether report on corporate retirement plans finds that the retirement readiness for participants in those plans is brighter due to plan design enhancements and adoption of prudent investing practices.
In fact, the usage of automatic enrollment has tripled since year-end 2007 and has...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 6/7/2019
Following House passage of the bipartisan SECURE Act last month, it looked like the legislation was headed for quick enactment. Since then, however, the realities of the Senate’s legislative process appear to have taken over.
A quick recap from where we last left off: On May 23, the House...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 6/7/2019
Not all broker-dealers and investment advisers are adequately addressing the various security risks in relation to their network storage solutions, which could result in unauthorized access to information stored on the device, according to a new SEC Risk Alert.
During recent examinations, staff...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 5/24/2019
The federal government’s updated Spring 2019 unified regulatory agenda sheds some light on prospects for the Department of Labor’s next steps on a fiduciary rule revamp.
The DOL’s updated regulatory agenda confirms that the agency has set a target date of December 2019 to issue a Notice of...
READ MORE
By Ted Godbout 5/23/2019
UPDATED MAY 24 AT 9:30 A.M. ET
One of the most consequential pieces of retirement security legislation in more than a decade has been approved overwhelmingly by the U.S. House of Representatives.
In a May 23 House floor debate that featured much praise and few objections, the Setting Every...
READ MORE
Pages
Advertisement