News Archive

"The December 31, 2026 amendment deadline should not be viewed merely as a document drafting exercise. It represents the final stage of a multi-year implementation process that began with the SECURE Act, continued through the CARES Act and was significantly expanded by SECURE 2.0. For many plans, the most important question ... is whether those amendments accurately reflect the way the plan has actually been operated."  MORE >>

"If a plan sponsor sees a need among its employees, it should consider two more things. First, the complexity of [the rules outlined in IRS Notice 2026-33] is daunting. Second, this is another way for plan benefits to be depleted before the participant retires, leaving him or her short on resources for living after working days are over ... Having said that, long-term care insurance is expensive, and this may be the only way a participant has to afford that coverage. Therefore, QLCDs address what may be an actual need for some people."  MORE >>

"As part of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019, the PCORI annual filing and fees were reinstated for an additional 10 years, through 2029. That means that all employers (or their insurers in fully insured group health plans) must file the annual IRS Form 720 by July 31st of each year, regardless of their plan year."  MORE >>

"Employers across the country routinely receive a Letter 226-J from the IRS proposing an [ESRP], often running well into six or seven figures, for a tax year that may be several years in the past. Each of these letters contains a single sentence that the IRS treats as the foundation of the entire assessment.... This article lays out the statutory framework, explains in detail why a Letter 226-J is not a Section 1411 notice, walks through the Faulk decision, and shows how Loper Bright independently dooms the government's reading of the statute. It closes with what an employer holding a Letter 226-J should do now."   MORE >>

"With the new accounts set to officially launch July 4, the Treasury Department and IRS have issued a new safe harbor that generally exempts qualifying contributions from gift tax reporting requirements, reducing administrative burdens for families and other donors."  MORE >>

"Each year, more states require businesses above certain employee thresholds, in many cases starting at 5 or more employees and in some states as low as 1 employee, to either offer a qualified retirement plan or enroll employees in a state-facilitated program, with penalties for noncompliance.... What began as a handful of pilot programs has evolved into a nationwide push to expand retirement access and increase employer responsibility."  MORE >>

"Plaintiff alleged that Caremark unjustly enriched itself by covering plan members' maintenance prescriptions only if filled at CVS retail pharmacies or through mail order, in violation of two Arkansas statutes ... Because PBMs manage benefits on behalf of plans, the court reasoned, regulation of PBMs functions as regulation of the plan itself.... The court concluded that these requirements interfere with the nationally uniform plan administration that ERISA was enacted to protect, and that ERISA therefore preempts them, rendering them without effect. Because Plaintiff's unjust enrichment theory depended on violations of preempted requirements, it did not state a plausible claim, and the court affirmed." [Flowers v. Caremark PCS Health, LLC, No. 25-3068 (8th Cir. June 29, 2026)]  MORE >>

"Under the FMLA, employers may require employees to use accrued PTO, such as vacation leave, personal leave, or sick leave, concurrently with unpaid FMLA leave.... [S]tate leave laws may restrict employers' ability to require the use of accrued PTO during FMLA leave. For example, Massachusetts' Paid Family and Medical Leave Act (PFMLA) prohibits employers from requiring employees to use accrued PTO while on PFMLA leave."  MORE >>

"[P]laintiff alleged that the ESOP's OIA ... would be worth more today had those assets been invested in a portfolio including stocks and bonds. The court largely denied the defendants' motion to dismiss.... While the court recognized that there may have been 'good reasons' for maintaining a high OIA cash balance (for example, liquidity to facilitate stock repurchases), it declined to give weight to Defendants' alternative explanations at the pleading stage." [Dawson-Roberts v. Norman S. Wright Mechanical Equipment LLC, No. 26-1171 (N.D. Calif. Jun. 25, 2026)]  MORE >>

"The 'gross misconduct' exception remains a remarkably high bar to clear. In [this] case, the employer had irrefutable evidence comparing the employee's remote clock-ins against his approved medical leave. The practical message to employers is to ensure that written employee communications clearly outline FMLA rights, timekeeping procedures, and address the consequences of time theft, and also to keep precise records of employee leave and remote hours." [Green v. Clement Auto Group, LLC, No. 25-0168 (E.D. Mo. Jun. 18, 2026)]  MORE >>

"Outrageous provider-driven abuse of the No Surprises Act is adding billions in wasteful spending and raising healthcare costs for everyone. Policy action is needed to address flawed incentives in the IDR process and protect consumers from unconscionable price gouging by out-of-network providers and IDR middlemen[.]"  MORE >>

"When the same provider runs payroll and administration, everything flows through a single system and a single interpretation of the plan document. That sounds efficient, until the setup is wrong. If eligibility is coded incorrectly or compensation definitions don't align with payroll fields, the error repeats every pay period. There's no independent TPA catching the issue ... What looks like integration is often just duplication of risk."  MORE >>

"As private equity firms seek to standardize operations and strengthen governance across their holdings, Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs) and Multiple Employer Plans (MEPs) are increasingly emerging as strategic retirement plan solutions. By combining centralized administration, professional fiduciary oversight, and scalable plan management, these arrangements can help private equity firms align retirement plan governance with broader business objectives."  MORE >>

"ERISA cannot easily substitute for a coherent health care cost-containment strategy. It was not written to regulate provider markets, set prices, restructure incentives, or redesign the health care delivery system. Policymakers and advocates should therefore be careful not to ask ERISA to carry more than it can bear. The better course is to strengthen ERISA where it naturally applies -- transparency, fiduciary process, disclosure, and plan governance -- while addressing the underlying drivers of health care costs through other statutes and policies designed for that purpose."  MORE >>

"The defendants argued that an unintentional error in counseling cannot support a fiduciary breach claim unless the plan language on the same topic is also ambiguous. The court rejected that argument, reasoning that ERISA imposes an affirmative duty on fiduciaries to convey complete and accurate information material to a beneficiary's circumstances, even when the beneficiary has not asked." [Williams v. Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC Benefits and Investment Committee, No. 24-7593 (N.D. Cal. June 29, 2026)]  MORE >>

"Some of the clearest uses for AI are language-heavy tasks that already consume staff time. Plan staff answer routine questions, rewrite technical language, sort incoming messages, and hunt for the right policy or procedure. Large language models fit that work. They can summarize documents, classify inquiries, draft plain-language responses, and help staff retrieve plan rules quickly."  MORE >>

"Segal analyzed the administrative expenses reported by DC annuity funds in Form 5500 filings for 2023 and 2024. When segmenting the data by plan type, geography, plan size and participant size, the data not only showed clear patterns in administrative cost, but provided guidelines to help plan sponsors understand the fees they should expect or negotiate for their plans. [This article presents those] findings and outline[s] seven steps trustees of plans with outdated fee structures can take to lower administrative costs."  MORE >>

"President Trump on [June 29] announced in a social media post that he will nominate Keith Sonderling to be the next Secretary of Labor. Sonderling has been serving as Acting Labor Secretary since April, after then-Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned following allegations of misconduct and other improprieties."  MORE >>

"The use of artificial intelligence does not lower the fiduciary standard. It does not allow fiduciaries to outsource judgment. It does not excuse weak oversight. And it does not allow a plan sponsor to say, 'The system made the decision,' as if that ends the discussion.... Fiduciary review cannot stop at cost, convenience or a polished sales presentation. Plan fiduciaries should understand what the tool does, what data it uses, how outputs are reviewed and whether a human remains involved."  MORE >>

"This final rule ... prescribe[s] the spreads component of the interest assumption under the asset allocation regulation for plans with valuation dates of July 31, 2026-October 30, 2026. These interest assumptions are used for valuing benefits under terminating single-employer plans and for other purposes."  MORE >>

"This revenue procedure provides a transfer tax safe harbor for certain individual donors who make one or more contributions to Trump accounts established under section 530A of the Internal Revenue Code.... [F]or taxpayers within the scope of section 4 of this revenue procedure, contributions to Trump accounts will be treated as completed gifts that are not gifts of future interests in property and to which the annual per-donee gift tax exclusion applies. As a result, taxpayers within the scope of section 4 of this revenue procedure will not be required to file gift tax returns reporting such contributions."  MORE >>

22 pages; Rev. Jun. 2026."What's New: Sections 4375 and 4376 patient-centered outcomes research fee increase. The fee for policy and plan years ending on or after October 1, 2025, but before October 1, 2026, is increased to the applicable rate of $3.84 ... The fee for policy and plan years ending on or after October 1, 2024, but before October 1, 2025, remains at the applicable rate of $3.47 ... File Form 720 annually to report and pay the fee on the second-quarter Form 720 no later than July 31 of the calendar year immediately following the last day of the policy year or plan year to which the fee applies." [Also available: IRS Form 720, Quarterly Federal Excise Tax Return (Rev. Jun. 2026)]  MORE >>

"The filing and payment to the IRS is due by July 31, 2026, and applies to policy and plan years ending during the 2025 calendar year. The applicable PCORI fee is based on the plan year-end date: $3.84 per covered life for plan years ending on or after Oct. 1, 2025 and before Oct. 1, 2026; $3.47 per covered life for plan years ending before Oct. 1, 2025."  MORE >>

"[The recent SEC] staff statement on pooled employer plans (PEPs) ... announced that an ERISA-covered PEP would be allowed to rely on the 'single trust' exclusion to avoid registration as an investment company. Second, the staff confirmed that collective investment trusts (CITs) may use the existing Rule 180 exemption when issuing interests to qualifying PEPs that include self-employed individuals.... [T]he biggest takeaway ... may be what it didn't say about the multitude of other multiple employer plans (MEPs)."  MORE >>

"This update would amend Topic 715 of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification, which governs the measurement of pension liabilities for a plan sponsor's financial statements.... The proposed update would result in liability measurements that more closely track the account balances, consistent with the plan sponsor's true financial obligation."  MORE >>