DOL Issues
The Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans has recommended that the Department of Labor (DOL) issue new guidance on ERISA bonding, as well as a summary of the requirements for securing a fidelity bond that complies with DOL guidance.
The recommendations are contained in “...
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Preparing and fling the Form 5500 Series is one of the more onerous tasks associated with administering retirement plans. But one should resist the impulse to just sign the thing and get it all over with, argues a recent blog entry.
In “The IRS Form 5500 – Look Before you Sign!” an entry in...
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Having a retirement plan and a commitment to facilitating employees’ saving for their retirement is important. In MarketBeat, John Iekel discusses a recent blog entry that argues that the good that accomplishes can be blunted if the employer and the plan administrators don’t communicate about the...
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Editor’s Note: This is an occasional feature in the NTSA Advisor. It is drawn from The Source, a book that covers technical, compliance, administrative and marketing aspects of the 403(b) and 457(b) markets. More information about The Source is available here.
It is important to note that ERISA...
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A plan audit need not be unpleasant, and there are steps that can be taken to prepare for one and make it a smoother experience. In MarketBeat, John Iekel discusses a recent blog entry that offers suggestions regarding what can be done to prepare for a plan audit and avoid making errors.
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The proposed settlement in a university 403(b) excessive fee case has received preliminary approval from a federal judge.
Last month Judge Catherine C. Eagles of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina noted that, “while class counsel have adequately addressed many of the...
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Strong majorities of 403(b) plan sponsors are expanding the tools they are using to govern their plans, according to a recent report. And that applies not only to 403(b)s governed by ERISA, but also to those that are not.
More than 70% of sponsors of ERISA-governed 403(b)s have an investment...
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In MarketBeat, John Iekel looks at a recent blog entry that argues that new year’s resolutions about physical fitness are not the only kind that should be made; it suggests that they should also include being ready for a plan audit by the IRS or Department of Labor.
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Some things are inexorable. Seasons. Tides. And, argues a recent blog entry, plan litigation. But as with natural phenomena whose effects can be mitigated, the analysis suggests that lessons from the litigation that has taken place can benefit 401(k) and 403(b) plan fiduciaries in 2019.
Litigation...
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Bipartisan legislation to allow plan sponsors to use e-delivery as the default distribution method for ERISA required retirement plan documents was reintroduced in the Senate in the waning days of the 115th Congress.
The Receiving Electronic Statements to Improve Retiree Earnings (RETIRE) Act (S....
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The American Retirement Association (ARA), in a Dec. 12 letter to Joe Canary, Director of the Office of Regulations and Interpretations of the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, has suggested steps the agency can take to improve retirement security.
The ARA sent the letter as part of...
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It’s said that if at first you don’t succeed, try again. And apparently, when it comes to at least one stable value fund suit, you try again. And again.
The persistent plaintiff here is one Darlene Dezelan, a participant of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center 403(b) Retirement Plan, who initially (...
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ERISA requires a variety of disclosures to plan participants. This installment of ERISA Tips focuses on disclosures of investment-related information.
In “The Fiduciary Duty of Participant Disclosures,” a paper by Thorp Reed & Armstrong, Kevin A. Wiggins notes that plan administrators are...
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An employer offers a 403(b) non-ERISA plan to her employees. Its benefits administrators are aware of the need to prevent compliance violations such as borrowing more than $50,000 and taking distributions while still employed and under age 59½. But other than that, they are unsure what fiduciary...
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The ERISA Advisory Council has recommended that the Department of Labor (DOL) issue new guidance on ERISA bonding. The recommendation comes in a report to Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta that includes the council’s evaluation of the DOL’s regulations and guidance on ERISA bonding requirements...
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In response to a federal court request, Golden State officials have elaborated on why CalSavers – the state’s state-run automatic IRA program for private sector workers – isn’t preempted by ERISA.
The comments came in a brief (Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Ass’n v. Calif. Secure Choice Ret. Savings...
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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. 14 released advance copies of the Form 5500 Series forms to be used for 2018 reporting, as well as the related instructions.
EBSA reports that the 2018...
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The protection Section 404(c) of ERISA offers can take expenditures of various resources, but a blog argues that it’s worth the expense.
In “Section 404(c) Compliance: Added Protection Makes it Worth the Effort,” Wells Fargo argues in its blog that the value of the protection Section 404(c ) can...
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The Department of Labor (DOL) wants to know what you think about auto-portability.
In a Nov. 7 request for comments, the DOL noted that employees leaving their current place of employment with small account balances in the company’s 401(k) plan often either take a distribution of their retirement...
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ERISA has been described as “a complex statute to navigate,” and a recent blog entry offers a look at the basics — ERISA 101.
In “ERISA: Thou Shall Not Pay Excessive Fees!,” an entry in the CKR Law blog, Jose Jara, the firm’s Employment, ERISA and Employee Benefits Practice Group Leader, includes...
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