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Best Practices for ESOP Boards of Directors
September 22, 2015 WEBCAST
(National Center for Employee Ownership [NCEO])

Leave Issues for 2015 and Beyond: Avoiding 15 Common FMLA Pitfalls and Preparing for Pittsburgh’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance
September 22, 2015 in PA
(Littler Mendelson)

Public Health Exchanges and Consumer Engagement
September 23, 2015 WEBCAST
(Healthcare Web Summit)

Advanced Cross-Tested Plans: Adding More Tools - Bloomington
September 25, 2015 in IL
(SunGard Relius)

RMDs
September 25, 2015 WEBCAST
(SunGard Relius)

20th Annual Conference: Achieving Health Care Value: No Purchaser is an Island
November 16, 2015 in TX
(National Business Coalition on Health [NBCH])

View All Webcasts and Conferences

[Official Guidance]

Draft of 2015 IRS Form 5500-EZ: Annual Return of One-Participant (Owners and Their Spouses) Retirement Plan (PDF)
Draft dated August 25, 2015. "This form is required to be filed under section 6058(a) of the Internal Revenue Code. Certain foreign retirement plans are also required to file this form." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

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Internal Trustees of ESOPs (PDF)
86-page presentation outline. Topics include: [1] Sources of ESOP Trustee's Duties; [2] Internal v. External Trustee; [3] Legal Liability of Trustees; [4] Internal Trustee's Interaction with Company's Board of Directors; [5] Valuation of Company Stock; and [6] Payment of Expenses from Plan Assets. (Utz & Lattan, LLC)  

Top 10 Reasons to Have an ERISA Litigator on Speed Dial
"Supreme Court's heightened interest in ERISA ... Increase in Department of Labor investigations ... New standards of fiduciary prudence ... De-risking your pension liabilities ... Disclosures matter ... New definition of 'fiduciary' ... Growing 'conflict of interest' claims in benefits litigation ... Expansive remedies in litigation ... Risk of attorneys' fees in lawsuits ... Dangerous ERISA fiduciary exception to attorney-client privilege." (Mayer Brown LLP, via Lexology)  

Avoiding 401(k) Fiduciary Liability Doesn't Need to Be Difficult; Simple 'Best Practices' Are the Key
"While 401k sponsors are subject to complex fiduciary responsibilities under ERISA, a qualified (and inclined) service provider can make it simple for sponsors to meet their fiduciary responsibilities with some basic 'best practice' guidance.... 401k sponsors should be mindful of the 4 key sources of fiduciary liability today: [1] Paying excessive plan fees; [2] Selecting imprudent investments; [3] Not remitting participant contributions timely; [4] Failing to follow plan document terms." (Employee Fiduciary)  

Plaintiffs' Lawyer Takes on Retirement Plans
"Before taking on his first retirement case, Mr. Schlichter says he and his firm spent a year and a half learning about the field. 'The practices in the industry were off in a dark corner,' he says. 'There was a significant amount of inattention we observed.' Eight of his suits have resulted in settlements totaling more than $214 million in payouts, with $70 million of that going to 67-year-old Mr. Schlichter and his law firm, Schlichter Bogard & Denton LLP." (The Wall Street Journal; subscription may be required)  

[Advert.]

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Hold It or Fold It: Keeping or Terminating the Employer Stock Fund After Dudenhoeffer and Tatum (PDF)
21 pages. "[This article describes] a process by which the fiduciary can prudently decide to keep the employer stock fund open to new investment and a process by which the fiduciary can prudently decide to terminate the fund. Both are based on Dudenhoeffer and the case law and financial market theory on which it is based. [The authors] also set forth some additional thoughts for possibly shoring up the fiduciary's 404(c) protection by transferring some of the decision from the fiduciary to participants." (Ivins, Phillips & Barker, via Bloomberg BNA Pension & Benefits Daily)  

Buyer Beware! Multiemployer Pension Plan Successor Liability Following an Asset Sale
"Recently ... the Seventh Circuit [held] that an asset purchaser could be liable for a seller's withdrawal liability triggered as a result of an asset sale, provided that the purchaser had known of the seller's 'contingent' withdrawal liability that would be triggered by the sale.... The court's reasoning that equity mandates imposing common law notions of successor liability to multiemployer pension plans is questionable given the ERISA Section 4204 exception to the general rule that a sale of assets otherwise would trigger a complete or partial withdrawal for the seller." [Tsareff v. ManWeb Services, Inc., No. 14-1618 (7th Cir. July 27, 2015)] (Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, via Lexology)  

Opting Into a Pick-Up Plan
"A recently issued IRS private letter ruling puts the kibosh on the fairly common practice of allowing public agency employees to elect whether and at what level to participate in the agency's mandatory contribution pension plan.... [P]lans with this feature need to be carefully examined to determine how participants will be treated from an income tax perspective and how the plan itself may need to be restructured or fixed in order to maintain its tax-favored status." (Chang Ruthenberg & Long PC)  

Post-Employment 401(k) Rollovers: Questions HR Should Ask
"Before the DOL issues its final rule, now may be an ideal time for plan sponsors to more formally review their position regarding terminated plan participants.... [T]here are three questions in particular that sponsors may want to address ... [1] What currently happens when a plan participant terminates from service? ... [2] What is the plan sponsor's preference regarding whether terminated participants leave their money behind in the plan or roll their balances to a new plan or IRA? ... [3] Are the plan design and employee education offerings currently aligned with the company's goals?" (Society for Human Resource Management [SHRM])  

Survey Finds People Prioritize Wealth Over Health, but Retirement Savings Hurdles Remain
"90 percent of respondents said they would think twice about taking a job if the company did not offer a 401(k) plan. The survey also found: More than two-thirds (68%) consider making the best 401(k) investment choices a key priority -- even more so than staying in shape (59%). 73 percent would rather have their 401(k) balance grow by 15 percent this year than lose 15 pounds. Participants pay more attention to 401(k) investment fees (64%) than ATM fees (60%), airline baggage fees (50%) or gym sign-up fees (49%)." (Charles Schwab)  

[Opinion]

Will the Fiduciary Rule Make Selling Impossible?
"[A]ssume you are a captive insurance agent. As such, your job is to 'sell' the investments of the insurance company you represent. When people with money in an IRA come through your door, your job is to suggest that they purchase one of the annuities offered by the insurance company whose name is on your door. Under the proposed rule, unless the agent takes the form of a potted plant, any suggestion regarding one of the insurance company's products will be considered a 'recommendation,' making the agent a fiduciary.... The implications for the IRA industry are enormous." (National Association of Plan Advisors [NAPA])  

[Opinion]

FINRA Testimony Before EBSA Advisory Council: Model Notices and Plan Sponsor Education on Lifetime Plan Participation
"[FINRA encourages] the Council to consider the following ... [1] Keep messages and materials short and simple.... [2] Design model notices for participants and sample educational materials for sponsors that build upon the principles of social marketing ... [3] Whenever possible, consider engaging a variety of communications channels to reach workers ... [4] Recognize the link between financial decision-making and psychological biases ... [5] Align message delivery with key milestones in the worker's life ... [6] Whenever possible, provide an opportunity to act when delivering messages that encourage action[.]" (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority [FINRA])  

A Look Ahead at the Supreme Court's October 2015 Term and Petitions of Interest to ERISA Practitioners
"In its upcoming October term, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear three cases of particular interest to ERISA plan sponsors and fiduciaries. First, the Court will hear yet another case involving a plan's ability to recoup medical expenses paid on behalf of a participant injured by a third party. Second, the Court will decide whether a state law creating a health claims database to facilitate healthcare and payment policy is preempted by ERISA. Third, in a non-ERISA case with potentially significant consequences under ERISA, the Court will decide whether a plaintiff needs to have suffered individualized injury in order to assert a claim for statutory and regulatory violations." (Proskauer Rose LLP)  

Social Security and Medicare Claiming Strategies to Navigate the Looming 52% Medicare Part B Premium Spike
"Given the looming Medicare Part B premium increase, those who are not eligible for the Hold Harmless provision -- for instance, those enrolled in Medicare but delaying Social Security benefits, or those who haven't yet enrolled in either but could -- should carefully consider whether it is really still worth delaying Social Security benefits (and/or delaying enrollment in Medicare), given that those who begin the process by October of this year still have the potential to get started in time to be eligible for Hold Harmless and shelter themselves from the 2016 increase." (Michael Kitces in Nerd's Eye View)