Fiduciary Rules and Practices
The Department of Labor (DOL) is pushing to get the revised version of its fiduciary rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by the end of January, according to published reports.The DOL needs to finalize the rule by April or mid-May at the latest to prevent Congress from exercising its...
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A recent study outlines what employers can do to help limit plan leakage by placing significant limitations on loans in their plan documents. In MarketBeat, Ellie Lowder suggests that 403(b), and perhaps governmental 457(b) plans as well, face the same problems and discusses what they can do.
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If a plan which sponsors an elective deferral 403(b) adds automatic enrollment to the plan, would ERISA then apply to the plan? In Tech Talk, Ellie Lowder tells us.
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The Garden State will have a new state-run retirement plan for private sector workers — though not the one that might have been expected. The state Assembly voted after 1:00 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 12 to cooperate with Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) conditional veto of a bill creating a state-run retirement...
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The American Retirement Association (ARA) submitted a comment letter Jan. 15, 2016 to the Department of Labor (DOL) concerning a proposed regulation under which an individual retirement account (IRA) plan, if established and maintained under a payroll deduction program mandated under state law,...
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The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has issued guidance and a proposal that would be applicable to state and local pension plans. The guidance clarifies how earlier guidance on accounting and financial reporting rules for pensions apply to state and local plans, and the proposal...
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The IRS has updated, for 2016, “Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498: Text of 2016 IRS Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498: Distributions from Pensions, Annuities, Retirement or Profit-Sharing Plans, IRAs, Insurance Contracts, Etc., and IRA Contribution Information.”The instructions outline...
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Would the 10% premature distribution penalty tax be imposed on 403(b) withdrawals made by a client who attained age 55 two months after she had severed employment from the school district for which she had worked? In Tech Talk, Ellie Lowder tells us.
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The IRS has issued an updated version of Publication 575, “Pension and Annuity Income,” for use in preparing 2015 returns. It made changes to the exception to the tax on early distributions from a governmental plan for qualified public safety employees and to the rules regarding rollovers to SIMPLE...
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Signed into law on Dec. 18, 2015, the huge appropriations bill governing tax and spending issues included a number of “extenders” — that is, the extension of tax provisions that expired at the end of 2014. In MarketBeat, Ellie Lowder discusses other employee benefit-related changes of interest to...
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Just before Christmas, President Obama signed into law H.R. 2029, a massive year-end spending and tax bill containing a number of provisions affecting health and retirement plans. Here’s what you may have missed.H.R. 2029 — now Public Law 114-113 — includes both an omnibus appropriations bill that...
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Be ready for more of the same regarding attention to fees charged plan sponsors and participants. That is the 2016 prediction of Susan Mangiero, a certified Financial Risk Manager, Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst, Certified Fraud Examiner and Professional Plan Consultant.In her blog,...
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The IRS Employee Plans office, in the latest issue of Employee Plans News, has issued reminders and links to other information especially useful to plans as the old year ends and a new year begins. It sent Issue 2015-14 on Dec. 21. The latest issue includes: A link to the 2015 Cumulative...
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With the advent of a new year, a compliance calendar will be a handy tool for making sure that a plan follows all the rules and regulations. In MarketBeat, Diane D. Capone provides a 403(b) plan compliance calendar for 2016.
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Ten-year averaging applies to some distributions from qualified plans. But does it apply to 403(b) plans? In Tech Talk, Ellie Lowder tells us.
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A bipartisan group of lawmakers last week introduced legislation that they say will “ensure retirement advisors serve their clients’ best interests and preserve access to quality financial planning.” It would also require an affirmative vote of Congress before the final fiduciary rule from the...
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It’s the time of year when Santa — and those who work with 403(b) plans — are making their end-of-year lists — and checking them twice.To that end, the lawyers at Snell & Wilmer have prepared the following end-of-year “to do” list for 403(b) plans. Adopt Design Changes by the End of the Plan...
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Those hoping that the Department of Labor's (DOL) fiduciary rule would be derailed in congressional budget negotiations found coal in their pre-Christmas stockings instead. Published reports had indicated that some lawmakers had tried to attach a rider to the omnibus spending bill that would...
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The House on Dec. 11, and the Senate on Dec. 10, passed a short-term spending bill that will keep the government funded through Dec. 16. Whether budget legislation ultimately will include provisions affecting the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule remains uncertain.The Hill reports that the...
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Some may consider it a bundle of coal, and others a vision of sugarplums, but a bipartisan group of lawmakers now says that their legislative proposal to ensure retirement advisors protect clients’ best interests could be introduced before the holiday break.The members of the bipartisan working...
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