Benefits Consultant
The Segal Group
in CA

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Severance Pay Plans & ERISA
RECORDED
Proskauer Rose LLP

Latest Trends in the Design & Strategy of Retirement Plans
February 22, 2018 in OH
Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB] - Cleveland Chapter

Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program
February 22, 2018 WEBCAST
Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor

SEC Reboots Focus on Robo-Advisers
February 27, 2018 WEBCAST
Wagner Law Group P.C.

Advanced Hardship Distributions [2018]
March 20, 2018 WEBCAST
FIS Relius Education

New DOL Disability Claims Regulations: Effects on Employee Benefits and Nonqualified Compensation Plans
March 27, 2018 WEBCAST
Strafford

Compensation: Navigating the Maze [2018]
March 29, 2018 WEBCAST
FIS Relius Education

Annual Clients and Friends Seminar
May 10, 2018 in MD
Smith & Downey, P.A.

Advanced ERISA Benefit Claims Litigation
May 17, 2018 in IL
American Bar Association Joint Committee on Employee Benefits [JCEB]

Benefit Plan Overpayments: Recognition, Recovery and Write-Off
May 24, 2018 WEBCAST
American Bar Association Joint Committee on Employee Benefits [JCEB]

Didn’t See THAT Coming: Seven Industry Trends Will Shape the Future
September 11, 2018 WEBCAST
ASPPA [American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries]

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New Topics on the BenefitsLink Message Boards

New Comments and Topics

All Topics, Grouped by Forum

[Guidance Overview]

Fiduciary Rule Myths
"One of the requirements [of the Impartial Conduct Standards in the Best Interest Contract Exemption (BICE)] is that a recommendation be in the best interest of the customer. This best interest requirement may lead some to think that advisors have to meet an essentially impossible standard. As with a lowest-cost recommendation, however, a mandate to recommend the best investment is a myth[.]"
Drinker Biddle

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Online Learning Course: 401(k) Plan Structure

Review considerations for structuring a 401(k) plan. Topics include salary deferral limits and catch-up contributions, matching and profit-sharing contributions, nondiscrimination testing and safe harbors.

[Guidance Overview]

Recent Legislation Impacts Retirement Plans
"Beginning with distributions occurring on or after January 1, 2018, employees will have until the due date of their tax return (including extensions) to roll over a loan that has been offset.... [T]his change only applies to loans that are being distributed. If a loan goes into default because no loan payment has been made within the default cure period ... the loan will be treated as a taxable distribution to the participant."
Retirement Management Services, LLC

Firms May Need to Revisit DOL Rule Compliance Efforts After Scottrade Charges
"[T]he state claims Scottrade ignored the policies and procedures it put in place ... to comply with the DOL rule. By ignoring those policies, the state claims Scottrade violated state laws by conducting transactions in bad faith... The Trump administration advised early in 2017 that it would not be pursuing enforcement of the fiduciary rule as long as companies were acting 'in good faith' to comply. But few could have foreseen a situation in which state regulators would seize on lax compliance with the federal regulation as an impetus for state charges[.]"
Advisor News

401(k) Investment Menu Best Practices
"Keep it simple ... Consider ESG factors ... Offer only one fund per asset class.... Provide more fixed income choices ... Offer index options ... Always use the cheapest share class ... Keep diversification in mind ... Select a QDIA ... Elect to comply with section 404(c) ... Investigate using CITs ... Consider passively managed TDFs ... Don't use funds that require synthetic benchmarks ... Don't white label your investment funds."
Lawton Retirement Plan Consultants

Target Date Funds: Three Things To Consider (PDF)
"The overwhelming market share enjoyed by the largest TDF managers suggests that either all plan sponsors agree on appropriate levels of market risk, active management, and use of proprietary versus outside underlying funds or, more likely, that many sponsors have not sufficiently considered the unique needs of their participants."
P-Solve LLC

[Advert.]

ERISA Audits: What We All Knew but Forgot

Feb. 26 webinar. When the DOL or IRS comes knocking and looking to examine the benefits being offered to employees, it is important for an employer to be knowledgeable and ready.

Combining TDFs With Managed Accounts (PDF)
"[D]espite their popularity, TDFs cannot meet the needs of most participants because they are one-size-fits-all.... [M]anaged accounts are personalized to the individual participant and serve as the second most popular QDIA. This article describes an approach that combines TDFs with managed accounts to create Personalized target date accounts, or PTDAs.... Managed account providers help participants identify appropriate risks, customizing risk exposures along the best TDF glide path. Recordkeepers manage allocations to personalized age-and-risk-appropriate models."
Target Date Solutions

Active vs. Passive Report, Fourth Quarter 2017 (PDF)
52 pages. "This publication contains two charts for each category of active managers. [One] table shows the percentage of rolling 3-year periods in which managers in various percentiles beat their benchmark by more than a certain fee hurdle.... The [second] chart displays the gross excess return for all the managers in Callan's database for specific asset class categories across the distribution spectrum, from the 10th percentile to the 90th percentile."
Callan Associates; free registration required

The Road Ahead: Considerations for Tax Reform's Impact on Your ESOP
"A C corporation or partially owned S corporation ESOP plan sponsor should immediately consider the benefits of maximizing its 2017 contribution to the ESOP.... A potential 20 percent reduction in tax liability for the outside shareholders of certain S corps means there may be less S corp distributions flowing to the shareholders, including the ESOP.... ESOP companies may be required to make greater company contributions to satisfy their debt payments and repurchase obligation."
Findley Davies | BPS&M

Shocks and the Unexpected: An Important Factor in Retirement (PDF)
11 pages. "The 2013 Focus Group research with individuals generally retired 10 years or less was followed up with 2015 Focus Group research with those retired 15 years or more. Together, these studies demonstrated that retirees often do not consider shocks and unexpected expenses in planning, or retirees implicitly expect to provide for such circumstances by trying to hold onto assets."
Society of Actuaries

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[Opinion]

Kicking the Tires on Fidelity's 'Retirement Score'
"The Fidelity Retirement Score is not bad, and it may do a reasonably good job of telling you where you stand in your planning for retirement, particularly if you are not highly paid and you don't have sources of retirement income other than your savings and Social Security.... [The] calculator probably under-estimates required savings rates for more highly compensated individuals."
Ken Steiner, FSA Retired

Corrections and Substantive Fixes Needed with Respect to Employee Benefit Changes Made by the 2017 Tax Act
"[T]he 2017 Act limits the personal casualty loss itemized deduction for property losses (not used in connection with a trade or business or transaction entered into for profit) to apply only to losses incurred as a result of federally-declared disasters.... Another possible error in drafting involves distributions from retirement plans that are used to pay for expenses for qualified higher education.... As the rules are currently written, it is unclear whether public universities are included in the definition [of an applicable tax-exempt organization], and therefore subject to the excise tax on excess executive compensation under Section 4960."
Bloomberg BNA

Seventh Circuit to Plan Participants: File Suit Immediately or Lose De Novo Review
"[T]he Seventh Circuit held that [the employee] waived the argument that Reliance Standard's failure to render a timely decision on her claim compelled de novo review simply because she pursued administrative review through an appeal rather than pursued available remedies when the issue arose (i.e. immediately file a lawsuit).... The unintended consequence ... is that in the Seventh Circuit claimants are now incentivized, rather than discouraged, to immediately file a lawsuit in order to obtain a favorable standard of review[.]" [Dragus v. Reliance Standard Life Inc. Co., No. 17-1752 (7th Cir. Feb. 14, 2018)]
Roberts Bartolic

Termination of a DB Plan: Must Distribute All Benefits at Same Time?
When it comes to plan terminations, we have always obtained all benefit elections and then instructed the trustee to distribute benefits all at one time. Is this really required? For example, we handle a 10 participant non-covered traditional DB plan that terminated November 30. Is there any problem distributing the benefits to one of the two 50% shareholders of the plan sponsor now and all remaining participants 6 months from now?
BenefitsLink Message Boards

QJSA Rules: Spousal Consent in a DC Plan
As I read Rev. Rul. 2012-3, if a defined contribution plan offers a single life annuity or a QJSA as the default form of distribution in the absence of a participant election, and also offers a lump sum, spousal consent is not required if the participant elects the lump sum prior to the participant's annuity starting date. Assume the plan has no annuity investments, and thus, e.g., Situation 2 in Rev. Rul. 2012-3 would not apply.
BenefitsLink Message Boards

Disclosure of 5% Contributors
Is there any legal (or other) significance behind the 5% contributor disclosure (for employers contributing to multiemployer plans)? Or is that just what's required by FASB?
BenefitsLink Message Boards

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Press Releases

Experienced Payroll Tax and Fringe Benefits Lawyer, David Fuller, Returns to McDermott’s Employee Benefits Practice
McDermott Will & Emery LLP

HERO Launches Research Study to Examine Potential Impact of Workplace Culture and Well-being on Employee Engagement and Retention
Health Enhancement Research Organization [HERO]

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