DC Valuations Specialist
PenSys, Inc.
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Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, LLP
in DC

Tax Associate
Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, LLP
in DC

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Goldleaf Partners
in AZ, CO, KS, MN, MO, NC, OH

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SK&F Enlightened Retirement Group, Inc.
in TX

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Correcting Retirement Plan Mistakes - Summer 2015 Updates
August 4, 2015 WEBCAST
(IRS [Internal Revenue Service])

Retirement Plan Insights Seminar
September 1, 2015 in OH
(McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

[Official Guidance]

IRS Q&As: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund Fee (IRC 4375, 4376 and 4377)
July 10, 2015; 16 Q&As. "How does an issuer of a specified health insurance policy or plan sponsor of an applicable self-insured health plan determine the average number of lives covered under the policy or plan in order to calculate the PCORI fee for the year? ... If an employer provides COBRA coverage or otherwise provides coverage to its retirees or other former employees, do covered individuals (and their beneficiaries) count as 'lives covered' for purpose of calculating the PCORI fee?... What exceptions to the PCORI fee apply?... Are health insurance policies or self-insured health plans for tax-exempt organizations or governmental entities subject to the PCORI fee?... What is the PCORI fee for the short plan year? ... Can a plan sponsor or policy issuer that overpaid the PCORI fee due July 31 reduce the PCORI fee due the following July 31 for the amount of the prior year's overpayment?... How should corrections to a previously filed Form 720 be made, for example one that determined a fee using an incorrect applicable dollar amount?" (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Advert.]

Registration Now Open for the Health Benefits Conference & Expo

Learn about the latest health benefits and wellness issues, trends and legislative developments at the 25th Annual Health Benefits Conference & Expo. Register today to secure 2015 conference pricing!

[Guidance Overview]

Agencies Issue Final Regs on SBC Requirements
"These regulations finalize, with very few changes, the proposed regulations issued on December 30, 2014. The final regulations state that the Departments anticipate a new [Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC)] template and associated documents will be issued by January 2016 and will apply to coverage that begins or is renewed after January 1, 2017. These final regulations make changes to the initial SBC regulations, issued on February 14, 2012, and codify certain guidance previously set forth in the FAQs about Affordable Care Act Implementation." (Proskauer's ERISA Practice Center)  

[Guidance Overview]

The Final Preventive Services Regulations
"The interim final and proposed regulations that resulted in these final regulations attracted an unusual number of comments (75,000), and the preamble to the regulation is unusual in the extent to which it discusses the justification for the preventive services requirement and the thought and consideration that went into the crafting of the final regulation. The litigation of this issue is far from over, and it seems likely that the agencies hoped to lay out clearly for the courts how they arrived at the final rule." (Health Affairs)  

Text of Petitioner's Brief to Supreme Court on Tracing Requirement for ERISA Benefit Overpayments (PDF)
60 pages. "Section 502 (a)(3) of ERISA authorizes 'equitable relief.'... Here, there is no thing against which Respondent is enforcing a right; the tort proceeds are gone. What Respondent instead seeks to impose is personal liability for a contractual obligation to pay money. That is not equitable relief. It is a claim for damages -- the most classic form of legal relief. The equitable remedy that Respondent requested in its complaint, an equitable lien by agreement, does not change the legal nature of Respondent's actual claim." [Bd. of Trustees of the National Elevator Industry Health Benefit Plan v. Montanile, No. 14-11678 (11th Cir. Nov. 25, 2014; cert. pet. granted Mar. 30, 2015)] (Robert Montanile, petitioner)  

HIPAA Settlement Warns Health Plans, Sponsoring Employers and Business Associates to Manage HIPAA Risks
"The Resolution Agreement ... shows how complaints filed with OCR by workforce members can create additional compliance headaches for Covered Entities or their business associates while the 'robust corrective action plan' imposed under the Resolution Agreement shares examples of ladder reporting and management oversight and documentation Covered Entities and business associates can expect to need to prove their organizations maintains the 'culture of compliance' with HIPAA OCR expects in the event of an OCR audit or investigation.... [T]he Resolution Agreement's focus on security requirements for internet application and data use and sharing activities engaged in by virtually every Covered Entity and business associate ... merit the immediate attention of all Covered Entities, their business associates and their management." (Solutions Law Press)  

Employer Ordered to Reimburse Employee for Medical Expenses Incurred During FMLA Leave
"Failing to recognize a request for time off as a request for FMLA leave can result in what this court called a 'constellation of federal violations.' Employers and plan administrators frequently have questions about their COBRA obligations with respect to employees who take FMLA leave, but their first hurdle is simply to identify the leave as subject to the FMLA -- and not, for instance, a layoff." [Hosler v. Jay Fulkroad and Sons, No. 1:13-CV-1153 (M.D. Pa. June 23, 2015)] (Thomson Reuters / EBIA)  

Healthcare Packages Likely to Be Revised in Automaker/UAW Contract Negotiations
"Health care costs will be a central issue in the talks, as the automakers face paying a so-called 'Cadillac tax' of 40 percent on rich UAW medical plans starting in 2018." (Reuters)  

Health Law's Contraceptive Rule Eased for Businesses with Religious Objections
"In an explanation of the rules, the administration confirmed that its definition of eligible closely held for-profit entities 'goes beyond what is required' by the Hobby Lobby decision.... Based on available data, the administration said it believed that its definition would encompass all the for-profit companies that have challenged the contraceptive coverage requirement on religious grounds. In addition, it predicted that at least 87 closely held for-profit businesses would try to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage." (The New York Times; subscription may be required)  

[Opinion]

Fee-for-Service for Benefits Brokers: It Changes Everything, and It's Coming
"[W]ith Aetna moving to a fee for service model for their small group, and now purchasing Humana ... we may see a much faster move to a fee for service model for all medical insurance sales. Another catalyst may be the upcoming rate battles between the insurance carriers and the Exchanges for the 2016 rates.... Carriers, to get their prices down, may move to the Aetna model of having the employers sign-off on how much they want to pay their broker. If this happens then you will have rapid price competition, something the benefits business has really never seen in the past." (Joe Markland)  

[Opinion]

Will Competition Arise for Multi-State Health Plans? (PDF)
"This article describes what the law says and does through the [multi-state plan (MSP)] program, the possible effect on health insurance markets, recent regulatory changes to the MSP program, and possible effects of the changes. [The authors] aim to shed light on a program within the ACA that, contrary to its intended purpose, could damage competition. [They] also explore the possible effect of recent regulatory changes that may contribute to more or less competition in health insurance markets." (Cato Institute)  

[Guidance Overview]

Congress Significantly Increases Penalties for Information Return Failures (PDF)
"Among other things, these increased penalties will apply to Forms W-2 and the 1099- series, as well as ACA-required employer shared responsibility and minimum essential coverage reporting forms.... [This article includes] a table summarizing the amendments (which amounts are subject to indexing)." (Groom Law Group)  

[Guidance Overview]

Under-the-Radar Provision More than Doubles IRS Information Reporting Penalties
"[T]he law increases the penalty from $100 per failure to $250 per failure under each of sections 6721 and 6722, which impose a penalty for each incorrect information return filed with the IRS and each copy sent to the payee or recipient, respectively. In other words, a single error on a 2015 information return (filed in 2016) may result in a $500 penalty unless the taxpayer is granted abatement on reasonable cause or other grounds. Similar increases were made to the reduced penalties for errors that are corrected within 30 days or before August 1." (Miller & Chevalier)  

[Guidance Overview]

SEC Proposes Controversial Rule Requiring Companies to Adopt No-Fault Clawback Policies
"One criticism of the proposal, such as that stated by dissenting Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher, is that the rule places a strict liability standard on executives where Congress did not mandate one in the Dodd-Frank Act.... A second point of controversy is the definition of 'executive officers.'... According to Commissioner Gallagher and other critics, the rule's no-fault standard, coupled with the broad definition of who the rule applies to, 'creates the potential for substantial injustice' because 'the rule sweeps far more broadly than the group of individuals ultimately responsible for the financial reporting of the entire issuer." (Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP)  

[Guidance Overview]

SEC Issues Proposed Clawback Rules
"Issuers should consider doing the following: ... Add provisions to any new incentive-based compensation plans and agreements explicitly subjecting the compensation to any clawback policy that the issuer adopts. Note that this could result in unfavorable financial accounting consequences for equity awards if done wrong ... Review the charter of the compensation committee to determine whether clawback policy compliance language should be inserted as a compensation committee responsibility in light of the contemplated rule requirements." (Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati)  

[Guidance Overview]

SEC Proposes Clawback Rules (PDF)
"The following causes for an accounting restatement do not trigger the recovery provisions of the proposed clawback rules: [1] Retrospective application of a change in accounting principle; [2] Retrospective revision to reportable segment information due to a change in the structure of a company's internal organization; [3] Retrospective reclassification due to a discontinued operation; [4] Retrospective application of a change in reporting entity; [5] Retrospective adjustment to provisional amounts in connection with a prior business combination; and [6] Retrospective revision for stock splits." (ExeQuity)  

Benchmarking Study on Trends in Advisory Firm Hiring, Typical Employee Benefits, and Average Advisor Compensation
"[T]he most common employee benefit is the typical offering of vacation time, offered by a reported 90% of firms (along with 81% who provide sick time, 57% that provide bereavement leave, and 46% offering maternity leave).... From there, the next most common employee benefit was health insurance, offered to staff in 75% of advisory firms (and paired with a Health Savings Account in 33% of firms, and a Flexible Spending Account in 25% of firms).... When it comes to employer retirement plans, there were 67% of firms offering a 401(k), another 14% of firms using a SIMPLE IRA, 10% providing a pension, and 3% using a SEP IRA.... the next most common employee benefit was covering the cost for licensing and exam fees, at 68% of firms, followed closely thereafter by financial support for professional development (e.g., conferences) at 61%, and financial support for designations/technical training at 56%." (Michael Kitces in Nerd's Eye View)  

The Crackdown and Costs of Independent Contractor Misclassification
"Over the last half-dozen years, employers have seen a crackdown on the misclassification of employees as independent contractors. Part I of this article will first address how this form of misclassification has arisen and what its consequences are for companies caught in the crackdown. Part II will next detail how regulators, legislators, plaintiffs' class action lawyers and union organizers have sought to counter businesses that are believed to engage in independent contractor misclassification. Finally, Part III will discuss how businesses can minimize or avoid the risks of this type of misclassification." (Pepper Hamilton LLP)  

Governmental Plans: Moving Forward After the Obergefell Decision
"The Obergefell decision will now impact state level eligibility and benefit plan designs that are not governed by the qualification requirements of the Internal Revenue Code.... [T]he Supreme Court relied on the Fourteenth Amendment to find that state laws prohibiting same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.... For governmental plan administrators that have not yet extended same-sex spousal coverage under their health and welfare plans, the time may be ripe to consider amending these plan provisions." (Ice Miller LLP)  

Supreme Court Agrees to Determine Whether ERISA Preempts Vermont Healthcare Database Reporting Mandate
"[Recent certiorari] filings discuss how to apply the presumption that the basic thrust of the ERISA preemption clause was to provide for the nationally uniform administration of employee benefit plans by avoiding a multiplicity of plan regulation. None of cert filings highlight the challenges to such presumption or the incoherence of the Supreme Court's ERISA preemption decisions ... Nor do the filings discuss the conflicts between those decisions and the terms of ERISA. There are important questions about the extent to which ERISA preempts a state-law reporting, record-keeping, or disclosure mandate, or any other state law." [Gobeille v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co. (2d Cir. Feb. 4, 2014, cert. pet. granted June 29, 2015)] (Albert Feuer, via SSRN)  

Mercer Wins Bell Ringer Awards for Total Wellness Education and Employee Communications Campaigns
Mercer

White House Recognizes Clorox for 'Best in Class' Retirement Plan
Clorox Company

Financial Engines Partners with the Social Security Administration to Simplify Retirement Planning
Financial Engines, Inc.

Heestand Company Expands Ownership Group
Heestand Company

Hub International Announces the Acquisition of Assets of Kansas-Based Group Benefit Specialists
HUB International

Bank of America Merrill Lynch Introduces Groundbreaking Initiative to Empower Companies With a Deeper Understanding of the Longevity Revolution and Its Impact on Employees
Bank of America

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