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Ethical Responsibilities from an Employee Benefits Perspective, and Social Media Techniques
May 21, 2014 in FL
(ASPPA Benefits Council of Central Florida)

The Rise of Consumer Engagement: Making CDHPs Work for You and Your Employees
June 5, 2014 WEBCAST
(Employee Benefit News)

Tax Forms Workshop: 5500 and More - Portland
June 6, 2014 in OR
(SunGard Relius)

Tax Forms Workshop: 5500 and More - Houston
June 6, 2014 in TX
(SunGard Relius)

Time to Retire the Idea of Retirement?
July 16, 2014 WEBCAST
(ThinkAdvisor)

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[Official Guidance]

Text of IRS Final Regs on Tax Treatment of Qualified Retirement Plan Payment of Accident or Health Insurance
"The final regulations set forth the general rule under section 402(a) that amounts held in a qualified plan that are used to pay accident or health insurance premiums are taxable distributions unless described in certain statutory exceptions. The final regulations do not extend this result to arrangements under which amounts are used to pay premiums for disability insurance that replaces retirement plan contributions in the event of a participant's disability." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS], U.S. Treasury Department)  

[Advert.]

2014 ERISA Outline Book: NEW Website. NEW Experience. NEW EOB.

The 2014 Edition of The ERISA Outline Book is now available. New Online EOB. New Experience. A must have for the serious professional, get the information you need to grow your business with the new online search platform shaped by user feedback.

[Official Guidance]

Text of PBGC Disaster Relief in Response to Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight Line Winds and Flooding in Florida
"A 'Designated Person' is any person responsible for meeting a PBGC deadline (e.g., a plan administrator or contributing sponsor) that is located in the disaster area for which the [IRS] has provided relief in FL-2014-09, May 7, 2014, in connection with filing extensions for Form 5500 series returns ... whose operations are directly affected by the Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-Line Winds and Flooding that began on April 28, 2014, in Florida.... The disaster area consists of Escambia and Santa Rosa counties." (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation [PBGC])  

[Guidance Overview]

A Plan Administrator's 'Due Diligence' Obligations for Rollover Contributions
"The IRS recently released Rev. Rul. 2014-9 which essentially describes certain new factual situations under which it is appropriate for a plan administrator to assume that a rollover contribution amount it receives is tax-qualified and, therefore, will not result in a compliance defect for the recipient plan.... The Guidance focuses on two specific factual situations ... In one situation, the rollover emanates from another employer's retirement plan while, in the other, the rollover emanates from an IRA." (Legacy Retirement Solutions)  

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Provides Guidance on Same-Gender Marriage
"Applying the rulings to a date before June 26, 2013 for all retirement plan purposes may create administrative difficulties and unintended consequences (such as changing the results of ownership attribution, which may affect the plan's non-discrimination testing). As a result, plan sponsors should carefully consider which plan provisions should be applied retroactively.... These dates were issued by the IRS for Internal Revenue Code purposes. They do not remove a same-sex spouse's right to make a claim for benefits for periods prior to these dates." (Poyner Spruill LLP)  

Rollover Rule Change Will Cause Trouble
"The once-per-year rule is a trap for the unwary. For one thing, it's not always clear what a 'distribution' is -- if you request a cashout of your IRA and the IRA provider sends you two separate checks a month apart, is that one distribution or two? Also, consider 'Granny' who has her IRA in six-month CDs. Most banks treat each CD as a separate new IRA, which they then close and distribute when the CD matures. If Granny has multiple CDs in IRAs that close out within 12 months of each other, she won't be able to roll over any but the first one. The way to avoid getting into trouble with this rule is to always use direct IRA-to-IRA transfers instead of '60-day rollovers.'" (Natalie Choate, for Morningstar Advisor)  

Conspicuous and Repetitive Disclaimer Attached to Benefit Calculation Carries the Day in Ohio District Court
"The court ruled that because the plaintiff was clearly warned that benefit calculations were subject to correction for errors in the employee's record and that the packet stated three times that the quoted benefit amounts were only estimates, the plaintiff could not reasonably rely on the estimates as being correct. Most important in the case, at least to the court, was the fact that the plaintiff had not already received the incorrect, higher amounts with a subsequent reduction in the amount when the error was discovered.... This case is important to practitioners, however, because it shows the need to make sure that all benefit calculations include easily identifiable language that provide that the calculations are merely estimates." [Spiewacki v. Ford Motor Co.-UAW Retirement Board of Administration, No. 1:13-cv-01972-JG (N.D. Ohio May, 1, 2014)] (Bloomberg BNA)  

Connecticut Forms Committee to Develop Retirement Plan for Private Sector Employees
"The Connecticut Retirement Security Board, which is made up of employees, employers, investment experts and representatives of the governor's office, will be responsible for researching and laying the groundwork for creating a state-level public IRA plan open to all private-sector workers." (Pensions & Investments)  

Top Payroll-Related Problems Most Commonly Identified in a 401(k) Audit
"Eligible compensation per the plan document is not initially coded correctly in the payroll system.... Eligible compensation per plan document is not properly/timely updated in the payroll system to reflect plan amendments.... Caps on deferrals are not properly set up in payroll system.... Catch-up contributions (as dictated by the plan document) are improperly excluded or included within payroll system.... Highly Compensated Employee's (HCE) annual compensation limit is not properly capped within payroll system for deferral withholdings.... For payroll systems that calculate employer contributions, employer match improperly includes/excludes catch-up contributions in payroll system." (Lindquist LLP)  

ESOP Operational Issues: Section 409(p) Testing
"Section 409(p) must be satisfied on every day of a year. Unlike other testing failures, there is not a prescribed method to make a correction after a nonallocation year occurs. Rather preventive measures should be taken before any event that might trigger a nonallocation year.... [A]ny change in the ownership of the non-ESOP stock during a year will affect the test as of the date of that change.... Another example that could affect the testing results is a change in family status during the year.... Similarly, any issuance of new synthetic equity during a year should be tested in advance." (National Center for Employee Ownership [NCEO])  

BlackRock Faces Potential Class-Action Lawsuits Over 'Disproportionately Large' Fees
"In the fourth legal complaint this year asserting similar claims, Florida investment adviser Timothy C. Davidson claims the world's largest money manager keeps too much of the value generated by one of its funds even as it gets larger and cheaper to maintain.... 'The issue we're focused on is the difference between what BlackRock charges the funds and the fees BlackRock negotiates with other firms at arms' length,' said Andrew Robertson, senior counsel at Zwerling, Schachter & Zwerling, the New York firm representing individuals who brought the other lawsuits against BlackRock." (InvestmentNews)  

The 15-Minute 401(k) Plan Review
"[1] Find your list of plan fiduciaries... [2] Review your advisory (or TPA) contract for fiduciary status... [3] Review your advisory (or TPA) contract's indemnification clause... [4] Grab your 408(b)(2) fee disclosure file... [5] Find your benchmarking report... [6] Examine your fund list for bias... [7] Check for an ERISA violation insurance provision or policy... [8] Review your fidelity bond." (CFO)  

'Myth Understandings' About DB Plans and Retirement Readiness
"There's no question that some Americans in the private sector have derived, and will continue to derive, significant retirement income from DB plans, and DB plans did and can deliver for the portion of the population that does stay with one employer/plan for a full career. The data show, however, that many Americans were not covered by those plans, even in the 'good old days,' and that even many of those who were covered, for a time anyway, were not likely to receive the full benefit that the design was capable of delivering because they didn't have, or take advantage of, the opportunity. Sound familiar?" (Nevin Adams via EBRI)  

401(k) Index Observations, April 2014
"[D]efined contribution plan participants had a relatively light trading month in April with an average daily transfer volume of 0.024% of balances. While this value is slightly higher than March's value of 0.021%, it is well below historical levels. Since Aon Hewitt began tracking this data in 1997, average monthly trading activity has been close to 0.05%, but April marked the sixth consecutive month that trading activity was below 0.03%." (Aon Hewitt)  

In-Plan Guarantees Grow in Number and Assets in 2013
"[In] 2013 the total assets covered by an in-plan guarantee grew 31 percent since 2012 to reach $2.9 billion. The number of plans offering in-plan guarantees increased to 23,500, a 10 percent gain over the year before. Eight out of 10 U.S. workers believe that employers should provide ways to convert savings into retirement income ... Younger workers are particularly interested in this option." (LIMRA)  

ERISA Section 510: Wanting to Be a Participant, Versus Being a Participant
"[O]utside of a collective bargaining scenario, no law that I am aware of requires an employer to put (or keep) an employee into a benefits-eligible employment classification just because the employee wants this. [This case] suggests that immediately upon hiring, every employee becomes a participant in every plan sponsored by the employer, regardless of plan terms. That simply cannot be reconciled with ERISA Section 202, and given the additional costs this would impose on plans, I would call this actuarial heresy[.]" [Sanders v. Amerimed, No. 1:13-cv-813 (S.D. Ohio Apr. 25, 2014)] (Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP)  

Seyfarth Shaw Launches Employee Benefits Administrative Service Center
Seyfarth Shaw LLP

James Publishing Releases An Attorney's Guide to ERISA Disability Claims
James Publishing

DOL Obtains Consent Judgment Ordering 401(k) Plan Trustees to Restore More Than $5,900 in Benefits
Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor

DOL Files Suit to Recover More Than $33,000 for Employment Benefits Plan of Remodel King Construction in Rapid City, SD
Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor

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