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House Committee Hearing: Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Employee Benefits Security Administration

Video of April 16 hearing. Opening Statement: Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA); Witness: The Honorable Daniel Aronowitz, Assistant Secretary, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA).  MORE >>

Employee Benefits Security Administration Notice of Meeting: Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans

Excerpt: [T]he Working Groups assigned by the Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans to study the issues of (1) The spend down of retirement assets, (2) hard to value assets/target date funds, and (3) phased retirement, will hold a public teleconference meeting on September 29, 2008.

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PWBA Formally Changes Name to Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)

"Changing the agency's name to the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) will more clearly communicate the agency's mission of protecting private sector employee benefits.... This order is effective upon the date of publication in the Federal Register."

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House Subcommittee to Conduct Oversight Hearing of the Employee Benefits and Security Administration

"On Thursday, June 27, at 10:15 a.m., the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions ... will hold a hearing titled Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Employee Benefits Security Administration.... 'Instead of advancing initiatives to strengthen and improve employer-sponsored health care plans, the Employee Benefits Security Administration's (EBSA) imprudent regulatory efforts have saddled American workers with higher costs, fewer benefits, and less flexibility,' said Chairman [Bob Good (R-VA)]. ... The hearing will be live-streamed on the Committee's YouTube page."

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DOL's Employee Benefits Security Administration Enforcement Actions and Results for 2000-2004 (PDF)

1 page chart. The Employee Benefits Security Administration reports that they achieved a 121% increase in enforcement results that protected $3.1 billion in retirement, health and other benefits for American workers and their families in fiscal year 2004.

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FY 2017 Congressional Budget Justification by the Employee Benefits Security Administration (PDF)

45 pages. "[$6,500,000 is] requested to support multiple pilots to implement new and different approaches to increasing retirement coverage in States, particularly for workers who are traditionally unable to access employment-based retirement benefits. Funds are requested through FY 2018 to allow sufficient time for inter-agency collaboration to craft grant solicitations that meet technical and evaluation requirements; the posting of grant solicitations with time to allow selected States to develop effective grant proposals; providing technical briefings and conducting outreach to better inform potential grantees; and the evaluation of proposals based on solicitation criteria to select grantees."

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Employee Benefits Security Administration Announces Launch of 401(k) Fee Disclosure Resource Website for Plan Participants

"The U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration has announced a new 401(k) fee disclosure website as a resource for consumers. The new site, http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/publications/understandingretirementfees.html, offers information on disclosures that, for the first time, will help workers with 401(k)-type retirement plans see what they are paying to invest their savings. It also includes new tips and tools on making smart retirement investment decisions."

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Employee Benefits Security Administration Says Look for Fee Disclosure Regs in May 2010

Excerpt: The chief of the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) at the U.S. Department of Labor said Wednesday that her agency plans to release its long-awaited regulation dealing with providers' fee disclosure under 408(b)(2) in May 2010.

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Head of Employee Benefits Security Administration, Phyllis Borzi, on Health Care Reform and ERISA Remedies

Excerpt: [She talks] about the need for need for ERISA reform in the area of remedies as part of the push for health care reform. [In BNA's Pension and Benefits Daily, she says] Plan sponsors and employee benefit attorneys too often jump to the defense of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act for all the wrong reasons[.]  MORE >>

Attorney Phyllis Borzi Nominated to Head Employee Benefits Security Administration

Excerpt: Until January 1995, [Phyllis] Borzi served as pension and employee benefit counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Labor-Management Relations of the Committee on Education and Labor. She was on the Committee staff for 16 years.... . Borzi has published numerous articles on ERISA, health care law and policy and retirement security issues and is a frequent speaker on programs sponsored by legal, professional, business, consumer and state and local governmental organizations. An active member of the American Bar Association, Borzi is the current chair of the ABA's Joint Committee on Employee Benefits[.]

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Fact Sheet: Retirement Security Initiatives Under the Employee Benefits Security Administration (PDF)

Excerpt: The [EBSA] is committed to safeguarding employee contributions to 401(k) plans and health care plans by investigating situations in which employers improperly delay forwarding employee contributions to the appropriate funding vehicle or simply convert the contributions to other non-plan uses. Either or both scenarios may occur when the employer is having financial problems and turns to the plan as a source of financing.

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President Trump Nominates Preston Rutledge to be an Assistant Secretary of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration

"Mr. Rutledge currently serves as senior tax and benefits counsel on the Majority Tax Staff of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee where his responsibilities include employee benefits, retirement issues, tax-exempt organizations, health tax issues, and the tax provisions of the [ACA]."

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House Subcommittee Hearing: Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Employee Benefits Security Administration

June 27 hearing. Opening statement: Rep. Bob Good (R-VA); Witness: The Honorable Lisa M. Gomez, Assistant Secretary, EBSA. Also available: HELP Subcommittee hearing recap, dated June 28.  MORE >>

GAO Report: Management Oversight at Social Security Administration Needed to Ensure Accurate Treatment of State and Local Government Employees

59 pages. "Recommendation: To improve SSA's management oversight of retirement benefits for public employees, the Commissioner of Social Security, in consultation with IRS, state administrators, and public employers, should develop procedures for monitoring the accuracy of Social Security earnings records. This could include [1] improving data collected on public employers, [2] identifying risk factors using existing SSA information and IRS audit findings." [GAO-10-938, published Sept. 29, 2010, released Oct. 4, 2010]

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Administration Proposes Rule to Expand Access to Fertility Benefits with New Legal Pathway for Employers to Offer Benefits Directly to Employees

"This proposal addresses employers' sparse coverage of fertility-related treatments for the American worker and increases benefit options by easing statutory and regulatory burdens to make IVF and other fertility treatments more affordable. Though most workers of reproductive age receive healthcare coverage through their jobs, the majority do not have robust fertility coverage. The proposed rule would establish a new category of limited excepted benefits. Excepted benefits are generally exempt from the market reforms under the [ACA] and certain other federal health care coverage laws. This new category would apply limiting principles similar to those already in place for other limited excepted benefits."  MORE >>

The Social Security Administration Has Posted the Section 419 Notice on Possible Benefit Reductions (PDF)

1 page. Excerpt: The Social Security Administration has posted the Section 419 Notice at www.socialsecurity.gov/form1945. Beginning on and after January 1, 2005, state and local governments who hire individuals in positions not covered by Social Security must provide the Section 419 Notice to such individuals. The Notice explains the possible reduction of their future Social Security benefit because they are taking a non-Social Security covered position.

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DOL Launches Online Filing System for Termination Administrators to Submit Information on Abandoned Employee Benefits Plans

"Since 2006, the program has enabled benefit distributions to be made to participants and beneficiaries of individual account retirement plans, such as 401(k) plans, that have been abandoned by their sponsoring companies. It allows qualified termination administrators to wind up a plan’s affairs and provides them with streamlined procedures for distributing benefits. The new system offers these administrators an online option for submitting required information to the department in addition to existing email and paper-based methods."

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Plan Sponsor Actions When a Former Participant Receives a 'Potential Benefit' Letter from the Social Security Administration

"These letters often cause confusion for both former participants and plan sponsors because they frequently cite stale information.... If a current or former plan participant provides their plan sponsor or administrator with one of these SSA letters, the plan sponsor or administrator should conduct a thorough review of the plan’s files to locate the account of the former participant and determine whether there is any balance in the account, and, if not, what happened to the balance."  MORE >>

Stylized Facts and Incentive Effects Related to Claiming of Retirement Benefits Based on Social Security Administration Data (PDF)

Excerpt: We rely on the Master Beneficiary File to document a number of facts regarding claiming of Social Security benefits and quality of date of birth data in administrative files. We then assess the impact of changes in retirement incentives that have taken place since 2000 on claiming. [Working paper no. 2008-200]  MORE >>

Opportunities and Risks of Using AI in Employee Benefits Administration

"Companies must diligently work with their data security and ERISA counsel to ensure that AI tools appropriately comply with privacy, data security, and other applicable employee benefit laws, including HIPAA and ERISA, as well as newly enacted state laws regulating the use of AI technologies. AI tools should be carefully vetted for accuracy and reliability. For this purpose, an employer may want to allocate oversight responsibility to its employee benefit plan committee."

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