DOL Issues
Some Form 5500 filers received relief in April, but not all. And the July 31 Form 5500 deadline looms for calendar-year plans—pandemic or no pandemic. And that includes 403(b) plans covered by ERISA.
IRS Notice 2020-23 granted extensions to individuals, trusts, estates, corporations, exempt...
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The New York Regional Office of the Employee Benefit Security Administration is said to be seeking a long list of information from plans with ESG funds—about the selection and review process for those options.
[UPDATED JUNE 17, ADDING A LINK TO THE LETTER]
In recent weeks, there have been reports...
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Does the Department of Labor’s fee transparency regulation cover tax-sheltered annuity programs that are ERISA-covered 403(b) plans?
DOL Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2012-02 says yes. Under Section 401 of ERISA, the regulation covers 403(b) plans established or maintained by tax-exempt...
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Tech Talk addresses when a plan sponsor must send elective deferrals to a vendor.
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The Department of Labor’s 2012 final rule to improve transparency of fees and expenses spells out what information is to be provided to participants after they choose an investment option.
After a participant has invested in a particular investment option, he or she must be provided any materials...
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If you were wondering what the Labor Department was planning to do about its reported revision of the fiduciary rule, wonder no more; a proposal has just been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for review.
The OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which is part of...
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The parties in one of the first university 403(b) plan excessive fee suits[1] filed in 2016 have come to terms.
This time the settlement (Henderson v. Emory Univ., N.D. Ga., No. 1:16-cv-02920, motion for preliminary settlement approval 5/29/20) involves the Emory University Retirement Plan and...
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Concluding that “courts sometimes make standing law more complicated than it needs to be,” in a 5-4 decision, the nation’s highest court has ruled that plaintiffs in a suit involving a defined benefit plan hadn’t incurred the loss of benefits necessary to establish the right to bring suit.
More...
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While there's still no Form 5500 filing relief, Notice 2020-35, issued May 28, provides additional administrative relief regarding deadlines applicable to employment taxes, employee benefits and exempt organizations affected by the pandemic.
Under Code Section 7508A, the IRS is postponing...
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Technically, it is the plan sponsor (or employer) who has the responsibility for the actual day-to-day administrative functions of the 403(b) plan, or for choosing the plan administrator, called a TPA (third party administrator).
Even with a TPA, the employer will always be the one that can be...
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A university that had won a dismissal of claims in an excessive fee suit will now have to confront some of those charges.
Noting that, “at this point, the complaint only needed to give the district court enough to infer from what is alleged that the process was flawed,” the Eighth Circuit Court...
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The Department of Labor’s 2012 final rule to improve transparency of fees and expenses provides plan administrators protection from liability for the completeness and accuracy of information provided to participants as long as the plan administrator reasonably and in good faith relies upon...
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Long weekend notwithstanding, chances are you’ve not yet delved deeply into the Labor Department’s final rule on default electronic disclosure. Regardless, here are some things you might have missed.
The much-anticipated final rule was rolled out early on the morning of May 21. While “...
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Not all plan sponsors that offer a 403(b) plan must file a Form 5500; namely, those that are not covered by ERISA. But 403(b) plans that are covered by ERISA must file. And they need to be aware that errors are always possible when one files a Form 5500.
Among the many mistakes that are...
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Acknowledging that technology has made significant strides over the past two decades—and that many Americans are working remotely during the COVID crisis—the Labor Department has finalized a new safe harbor for electronic disclosures.
The final rule adopted today is “fundamentally similar” to the...
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The Labor Department wants you (and your clients) to stop including Personal Identifiable Information (PII) on Form 5500 filings.
Scott C. Albert, QPA, Chief of the DOL’s Division of Reporting Compliance, explains that the agency makes the information in Forms 5500/5500-SF available to the public...
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The Plan Sponsor Council of America (PSCA), part of the American Retirement Association, has awarded Phyllis Borzi, former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Labor, with its prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award for her career-long commitment to preserving retirement savings.
Borzi was...
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The Department of Labor’s 2012 final rule to improve transparency of fees and expenses includes a requirement that information be provided to participants that allows them to compare investment options.
The Comparative Format Requirement provides that investment-related information must be...
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ERISA does not require fiduciary liability insurance, as it does fidelity bonds. Nonetheless, it is important to pay careful attention to fiduciary liability coverage.
Ordinarily, those covered by fiduciary liability insurance are:
the plan;
the plan sponsor;
executives;
board members...
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Communicating with retirement plan participants is always important; and aside from law and regulation requiring it, such communications can serve participants well and help make a retirement plan more effective and meaningful. But doing so during a pandemic poses challenges and can require...
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