News Archive

"[A] table provides a list of the content and deadlines for the most common notices that plan sponsors may need to distribute. It includes: [1] Traditional Safe Harbor 401(k) Notice; [2] Qualified Automatic Contribution Arrangements (QACA) Notice for a Safe Harbor 401(k); [3] Eligible Automatic Contribution Arrangement (EACA) Notice; [4] Qualified Default Investment Alternative (QDIA) Notice; [5] Non-Safe-Harbor Automatic Contribution Arrangement Notice; [6] Annual participant fee disclosures."  MORE >>

"[P]lan sponsors that made discretionary changes to their plans during the 2025 plan year should ensure that such amendments are documented in a formal plan amendment before the end of the year.... The general deadline to amend a qualified plan (that is neither a government plan nor a collectively bargained plan) to reflect changes adopted under several recent federal laws (including the SECURE Act, the CARES Act, and SECURE. 2.0) is December 31, 2026."  MORE >>

"Our member needed high-stakes surgery. The hospital knew it. The family knew it. Surgery was on the calendar; pre-op scans and imaging needed to be done. The message from the hospital was essentially: pay our inflated price, or the whole thing is at risk. When our repricer hit their bill with the 140%-of-Medicare logic, we weren't even in the same galaxy as their demand. They wanted ten times that amount. They wanted something no rational fiduciary could sign off on under ERISA's command to guard plan assets prudently."  MORE >>

"The Medicare Part A inpatient hospital deductible ... will be $1,736 in 2026, an increase of $60 from $1,676 in 2025.... The standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B enrollees will be $202.90 for 2026, an increase of $17.90 from $185.00 in 2025. The annual deductible for all Medicare Part B beneficiaries will be $283 in 2026, an increase of $26 from the annual deductible of $257 in 2025. "  MORE >>

"This article ... explores correction methods available when catch-up contributions for a participant subject to the Roth catch-up contribution mandate are mistakenly made on a pre-tax basis instead of a Roth basis.... A plan is permitted to correct this type of error by distributing the pre-tax elective deferrals that are not catch-up contributions. The final regulations also provide two additional correction methods that allow pre-tax elective deferrals that exceed an applicable limit to be treated as a Roth contribution. "  MORE >>

"This new development has the potential to directly impact the operation of practically every 401(k) plan in existence.... [A]ny plan sponsor that fails to prepare for this rule change is likely to end up with compliance problems that could have easily been avoided."  MORE >>

"Plan eligibility and the annual enrollment process becomes of utmost importance when an employer becomes an [ALE] ... For employers that hover around a 50-employee threshold, ALE status can fluctuate from year to year. [This article discusses] the important aspects of an ALE status and how to mitigate potential penalties."  MORE >>

"In September, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) ... changed its recommendations regarding several vaccines ... Although the updated recommendations have not been published in the ACIP Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), the CDC immunization schedules for both COVID-19 vaccination and MMRV were updated October 7, 2025 with adopted changes to recommendations. Plan years beginning on or after October 7, 2026, must comply with the new recommendations ... (January 1, 2027 for calendar year plans)."  MORE >>

"Yes, audits are required by the [DOL] for plans with 100 or more participants with balances. Yes, there are regulatory boxes to check. But there's a deeper reason behind all of it ... Because at the end of the day, a well-run retirement plan isn't just a compliance win. It's a promise kept to your employees. Let's talk about what it means to build a culture of compliance -- and how your annual 401(k) audit fits into that bigger picture."  MORE >>

"It is important for plan fiduciaries to be mindful that a plan's selection of a QDIA must satisfy the QDIA regulation, so selection of a fund offering that is more unique than the typical target date fund may be challenged for not satisfying the regulation's requirements absent specific or broad-based approval by the DOL."  MORE >>

"The decision provides a helpful reminder that, in ERISA cases involving conflicting medical opinions and evolving rationales, courts may permit targeted discovery to assess whether the insurer's structural conflict influenced its claim decision." [Kramer v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., No. 25-00327 (D. Utah Nov. 13, 2025)]  MORE >>

"An employee told supervisors that his pregnant spouse's condition was high risk, that she could not drive, and that he needed to get home after his shift to care for her. He twice refused overtime for this reason. No one informed him of his rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA). The Eleventh Circuit held that a jury could find he was entitled to intermittent FMLA leave, that the employer failed to provide required notices, and that this failure may have led to his termination. The FMLA interference claim survives." [James v. FedEx Freight, Inc., No. 24-12907 (11th Cir. Nov. 7, 2025)]  MORE >>

"According to the Survey of 755 plans, 1.3% said they have a PLESA, 14% are considering adding one and 84.7% said they are not even considering it.... For plans with 1-49 participants, 79.8% said they are not even considering adding a PLESA (3% already have one), and that number rises 90% for plans with 1,000 to 4,999 and 89.2% for plans with 5,000 or more participants."  MORE >>

"[The authors] determine how retirees should manage payouts from defined contribution plans to balance trade-offs between consumption and health care cost shocks, using both retirement plan assets and annuitization. [The] analysis explicitly integrates the role of taxes, required minimum distributions, bequest motives, and the possibility of retiree insolvency.... [P]ayout annuities, especially deferred and variable annuities, can be quite valuable for retirees, even when they face health shocks in later life."  MORE >>

"For fiscal year 2023, the federal government and six selected states -- California, Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas -- paid health insurance entities at least $1.6 billion in potential overpayments or fraud for duplicate health care coverage or benefits. The payments were made on behalf of approximately 500,000 individuals who were simultaneously enrolled across multiple states in Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) or receiving an advance premium tax credit (APTC) across multiple states." [GAO-25-106976, pub. Sep 25, 2025. rel. Nov 17, 2025]  MORE >>

"While most Americans get their insurance through work, many families rely on alternatives, and these options can offer relief when employer coverage becomes unaffordable."  MORE >>

"If data is like oil, then anyone should be able to drill for it, no matter who owns the land. And the driller should not charge even if they incur the costs of refining, storing and shipping.... [T]he reckoning over data is coming between record keepers that want to cross-sell, which may be most, if not all, of them, according to McKinsey, either alone or in partnership with advisors, and advisory firms that have similar ambitions[.]"  MORE >>

"Newly important for planning at year-end 2025 is the impact of the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' Act (OBBBA) ... [which] significantly raised the cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction but also phases out the deduction for yearly adjusted gross income (AGI) exceeding $500,000. An income deferral into an NQDC plan could reduce your phaseout in whole or in part."  MORE >>

2-page chart includes 2026 limits for qualified retirement plans, IRAs, PBGC, Social Security, and health and fringe benefit plans, along with corresponding limits for 2025 and 2024.  MORE >>

"Benefit plans operate in a world where every rule matters, every exception counts and every decision touches someone’s livelihood. ... [F]ull automation isn’t achievable today with the tools currently on the market. And even if it were, it might not be the right move. The smarter, and safer path forward is to use AI as a collaborator, not a replacement."  MORE >>

"This report expands and fully develops the legal, economic, regulatory, and fiduciary basis demonstrating that any allocation to Private Equity (PE) or Private Credit (PC) within a 401(k) Target Date Fund (TDF) -- including allocations as small as 1-10% -- renders the entire TDF a prohibited transaction under ERISA Sections 406(a) and 406(b)."  MORE >>

"[It] would not be a burden if the DOL required that PEPs offer a lineup that satisfied the 404(c) condition of a broad range of investments that would permit participants to construct portfolios that reasonably reflected their risk and return profiles.... Most commentators responded that the DOL should not establish a 'range of total fees'. There are several difficulties with that."  MORE >>

"[I]ndividuals and businesses in parts of Missouri affected by severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes, and flooding that began on March 30, 2025 ... now have until March 30, 2026, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments.... [I]ndividuals and households that reside or have a business in Bollinger, Butler, Cape Girardeau, Carter, Cooper, Douglas, Dunklin, Howell, Iron, Madison, Maries, Mississippi, New Madrid, Oregon, Ozark, Pemiscot, Reynolds, Ripley, Scott, Shannon, Ste. Genevieve, Stoddard, Texas, Vernon, Washington, Wayne, and Webster Counties qualify for tax relief."  MORE >>

"Instead of recalculating the [super catch-up] limit as 150% every year, the IRS will now index that dollar amount ($11,250) to cost-of-living adjustments (COLA).... in 2026, the super catch-up isn't just 150% of the regular catch-up -- it's whatever the indexed amount turns out to be (which, in this case, meant there was no adjustment, and it stayed at $11,250)."  MORE >>

"The IRS is back to work and just announced the 2026 annual limits that will apply to tax-qualified retirement plans ... [including] a surprise increase in the inaugural FICA wage limit for purposes of the mandatory Roth catch-up requirement. Employers maintaining tax-qualified retirement plans will need to make sure their plans' administrative procedures are adjusted accordingly."  MORE >>