Retirement Education Specialist
The Newport Group
in NC

ESOP Service Administrator II
Bankers Trust
in IA

ESOP Account Manager
Bankers Trust
in IA

ERISA Attorney
Employee Benefits Law Firm
in CA

Account Executive II
The Principal Financial Group
in MD

ERISA Attorney
Employee Benefits Law Firm
in CA

Retirement Plan Administrator
Benefit Administration Corporation
in CA

Benefits Program Strategy Manager
University of California, Office of the President
in CA

Director, Retirement Services Call Center
MassMutual Financial Group
in MA

Customer Services Representative - Retirement Services Call Center
MassMutual Financial Group
in MA

Counsel 3
Wells Fargo
in MN, NC

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Moench on Trial: What the Supreme Court’s Fifth Third Ruling Means for ERISA Stock Drop and Other Prudence Claims
June 27, 2014 WEBCAST
(Momentum Events Group)

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International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans [IFEBP]

[Guidance Overview]

Orientation Period Final Regs Address Employer Mandate
"In response to commenters' requests, the Departments address how the 90-day period rules interact with health care reform's employer mandate ... In this context, the Departments note that for a full-time employee who is hired by a large employer on January 6, a plan may offer coverage on May 1 and comply with both the waiting period rules and the employer mandate. However, if the employee is hired on January 6 and health coverage begins on May 6 (that is, one month plus 90 days after the date of hire), the employer will comply with the waiting period requirements but may be subject to an employer mandate penalty." (Practical Law Company)  

[Guidance Overview]

Proposed Regs Redefine FMLA's Definition of 'Spouse' to Recognize 'Place of Celebration'
"According to the DOL's fact sheet, this definitional change would also allow same-sex spouses to take qualifying exigency leave due to their same-sex spouses' covered military leave or to take military caregiver leave for their same-sex spouse who is a covered servicemember. The proposed change would also entitle an eligible employee to take FMLA leave to care for a stepchild (e.g., the child of the employee's same-sex spouse) even if the in loco parentis requirement of providing day-to-day care or financial support for the child is not met." (Ogletree Deakins)  

[Guidance Overview]

Changes to Connecticut Paid Sick Leave Law Provide Some Relief to Employers
"The Connecticut Paid Sick Leave legislation has been amended [1] to allow employers to determine the 50-employee applicability threshold in the same manner as under the state's Family and Medical Leave Act, [2] to allow accrual of paid sick leave hours on any annual basis, not just a calendar year, and [3] to expand slightly the list of 'service worker' titles that are the beneficiaries of the law." (Jackson Lewis P.C.)  

[Guidance Overview]

Soon, Many San Francisco-Area Employers Must Provide Transit Fringe Benefits
"Certain employers in the San Francisco Bay Area have less than six months to comply with a new law that requires them to provide commuter benefits to employees ... The program applies to any public, private, or nonprofit entity that employs 50 or more full-time employees per week -- excluding field employees and any seasonal/temporary employees -- within the Bay Area." (Ogletree Deakins)  

Text of District Court Opinion: Moen Retirees Entitled to Permanently Vested Lifetime Healthcare Benefits (PDF)
"Although Plaintiffs and Defendant both say that the language of the collective bargaining agreements and the plant closing agreement is unambiguous, the parties make radically different arguments regarding what the agreements unambiguously say. The Court first holds that the collective bargaining agreements unambiguously grant vested, lifetime healthcare benefits for retirees. Second, the collective bargaining agreements' reservation-of-rights language gives Moen the right to change its medical benefits insurer. I t does not give Moen a right to end employee medical benefits. But more important, the reservation of rights does not give Moen the right to terminate retirement healthcare benefits. And finally, the plant closing agreement also unambiguously grants vested, lifetime healthcare benefits for retirees."[Gallo et al v. Moen Inc., No. 13-2440 (N.D. Ohio June 23, 2014)] (U.S District Court for the Northern District of Ohio)  

Still Reimbursing Employees for Health Insurance Premiums?
"[T]he IRS has suggested that an employer could offer employees a choice between a certain amount paid in cash or applied (e.g., by after-tax payroll deduction) to pay individual premiums. The key here is that the employee will receive the benefit without regard to whether he or she decides to purchase health insurance." (Poyner Spruill LLP)  

Sept. 22 Deadline Quickly Approaching for Amendments to Business Associate Agreements
"The inclusion of the following terms is often a matter of negotiating power between the [covered entity] and [a business associate (BA)]. [1] Indemnification commitments.... [2] Insurance requirements.... [3] Access and audit rights as a way to monitor BA compliance.... [4] Fines and other remedies in the event of a breach or unauthorized disclosure of [protected health information] by the BA.... [5] Other substantive obligations." (Gray Plant Mooty)  

6.8% Medical Cost Trend Projected for 2015, Up from 6.5% Projected for 2014
"At first glance, the health sector appears to be reverting to historical patterns of bouncing back as the nation recovers from the economic doldrums. Whether spending more freely because of the improved economy or shopping with insurance provided through the Affordable Care Act, consumers triggered the first bump in growth in the first quarter of 2014. We expect that to continue through next year." (PricewaterhouseCoopers)  

Slight Rise In Health Care Spending Growth Projected
"What are the biggest drivers of the growth in health care costs? ... So are we headed back to the double-digit increases in health spending that we saw for many years? ... What effect are hospital purchases of physician practices, hospital mergers, and other forms of consolidation having in health care costs? ... Are we starting to see cost reductions from ACOs and risk-based contracts? ... How are employers reacting to cost pressures? ... Are consumers becoming more price sensitive?" (Health Affairs Blog)  

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Coverage Effects of Limiting the Tax Exclusion for Employment-Based Health Insurance (PDF)
22 presentation slides. Topics include: [1] Effects of the tax exclusion. [2] How big is the tax subsidy and how does it vary by income? [3] Why would effect be different today? [4] How CBO and JCT model health insurance coverage. [5] How CBO and JCT model firms' offers of employment-based coverage. [6] Three approaches to limiting the tax exclusion. (Congressional Budget Office [CBO])  

Obama Says Employers Should Be Required to Provide Paid Maternity Leave
"President Barack Obama said Monday that the United States should join the rest of the industrialized world and offer paid leave for mothers of newborns. 'Many women can't even get a paid day off to give birth -- now that's a pretty low bar,' Obama said at the White House Summit on Working Families.... Obama praised California, Rhode Island and New Jersey for creating a state benefit. But he has not endorsed legislation that would create a similar national system funded by a payroll tax[.]" (Associated Press)  

Carefully Choosing the Right Benefits Package Pays Off for Employees and Employers
"Company leaders should avoid the temptation to hastily choose an insurance carrier based on name recognition alone or because a peer, family member or acquaintance chose the same carrier. The choice of a benefits plan carrier is one of the most important steps a business will ever take, so it's worth the time to ask questions and really evaluate the answers." (Healthcare Reform Magazine)  

2014 Employer-Sponsored Health Care: ACA's Impact (PDF)
49 pages. Excerpt: "More than half of respondents believe ACA has had an overall negative effect on their organization thus far, and two-thirds of respondents believe ACA will have an overall negative effect on their organization in the future.... Nearly one in five organizations has adopted or expanded wellness initiatives due to ACA, and another 22% plan on doing so in the next 12 months.... Nearly three-quarters of respondents report they definitely will continue to provide health care coverage for all full-time employees in 2015[.]" (International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans [IFEBP])  

More Employers Cutting Staff or Hours Due to Obamacare
"With this week's addition of 28 documented examples of employers cutting work hours to dodge fines levied under ObamaCare's employer insurance mandate, [the author's] list now includes 429 employers.... One way to test for an ObamaCare effect on the workweek ... is to look at whether there is a shift in the ratio of workers clocking 31 to 34 hours per week compared to those working 25 to 29 hours. If that ratio were stable or rising, it would be a sign that ObamaCare wasn't affecting work hours in a meaningful way, the White House has suggested. But the data signal the opposite: The ratio has plunged to the lowest level in almost 14 years." (Investor's Business Daily)  

Obamacare Exchanges Fall Short of Enrollment Target
"[T]he actual number of Obamacare enrollees as of March 31 was likely between 6.4 million and 6.8 million, below both the administration's figure of 8 million and its stated target of 7 million.... Assuming the most positive estimates -- that 85 percent of the 8 million enrollees have paid their premiums and 43 percent had coverage before -- the newly insured would number only about 3.9 million." (Sharyl Attkisson, in The Daily Signal)  

Business as Usual: New Jersey Employers' Experiences with Family Leave Insurance
"This study examines how this relatively new, statewide program has affected employers' processes for administering and managing employee leaves. Does the program generate excessive paperwork, for instance, or burden employers in other ways? Is the program being abused, as some initially feared? And how, if at all, has it helped employers? ... [T]he study concludes that the paid family leave law has had little impact on how employers do business." (Demos)  

2014 Compliance Reviews for QHP Issuers in the Federally-facilitated Marketplaces (PDF)
37 presentation slides. Excerpt: "This webinar aims to provide Qualified Health Plan (QHP) issuers in the Federally-facilitated Marketplaces (FFMs) with an understanding of what to expect if selected for a 2014 FFM compliance review by: [1] Describing the scope of compliance reviews, including FFM-specific QHP issuer compliance requirements; [2] Presenting an overview of the FFM compliance review process; and [3] Sharing information that will help QHP issuers prepare for and participate in these compliance reviews." (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS], U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS])  

Fifth Circuit Finds Transit Workers' Benefit Claims Improperly Dismissed for Lack of Jurisdiction
"The Fifth Circuit disagreed with the district court's decision to dismiss the case on jurisdictional grounds, saying in a June 23 ruling that the U.S. Supreme Court 'has repeatedly instructed that we must avoid conflating the question of whether we have subject matter jurisdiction' with 'whether the plaintiff has stated a valid claim.'" [Smith et al. v. Regional Transit Authority, No. 13-30647 (5th Cir. June 23, 2014)] (Bloomberg BNA)  

IRS Issues Revenue Ruling on Applicability of Section 457A to Options and Stock Appreciation Rights
"By specifically noting that stock-settled SARs exempt from Section 409A are functionally identical to nonqualified stock options with a 'net exercise' feature (i.e., a right to exercise the option by withholding shares subject to the option having a fair market value equal to the applicable exercise price on the date of exercise), the IRS concluded that these SARs are also exempt from Section 457A. [Rev. Rul. 2014-18] confirms that SARs that could be settled other than in stock -- such as in cash -- are not exempt from Section 457A, even if exempt from Section 409A." (Proskauer's ERISA Practice Center)  

Revenue Ruling Allows Tax-Deferred Stock Rights for Managers of Offshore Funds
"Section 457A of the [Code] generally restricts the ability of offshore funds and other entities domiciled in tax-indifferent jurisdictions to offer tax-advantaged deferred compensation to U.S. persons.... Revenue Ruling 2014-18 ... allows an offshore fund to compensate its managers with stock rights that will only be subject to U.S. tax upon exercise, so long as the stock right is exempt from Section 409A and the manager has the same redemption rights with respect to acquired shares as other shareholders of the hedge fund." (McDermott Will & Emery)  

Is Proxy Disclosure Shareholder Litigation on Executive Comp Finally Over?
"[P]laintiffs' law firms are scrutinizing proxy statements and awards to find potential instances in which a company's awards appear not to have complied with the letter of the relevant plan.... [T]he following steps [can] ensure that the company is not targeted in this third wave of shareholder litigation: Evaluate every grant to make sure that it does not run afoul of the operative stock incentive plan in any respect.... Be careful to seek re-approval of the plan every five years... Ensure that the language in the plan as well as the proxy statement does not guarantee that every award will be exempt from the tax deduction limits[.]" (Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP)  

Multinationals' Global Benefits Management Strategy Evolves
"Seven out of ten global or regional benefit managers at multinational companies have limited or no access to timely financial information related to current employee benefit spending ... The underlying information exists, but needs to be extracted in a structured manner from finance systems, which is often the difficult part.... [T]wo-thirds of multinationals are at the early stages of developing their global benefits strategy and management approach. This means they are either just getting started or narrowly focusing on a single global benefit management area." (Towers Watson)  

Holly Roussel-Godfrey Joins PensionPro Software, LLC
PensionPro Software

ESOP Association Issues New Issue Brief: Treatment of ESOP Transaction Debt
ESOP Association

Multinationals have significant opportunities to raise their global benefits game
Towers Watson

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