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Retirement Plans Newsletter October 4, 2018 |
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Jobs
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Webcasts, Conferences Third Party Loans from Retirement Plans
All About Leave: From FMLA Requests to Benefit Plans, with ADA Obstacles in Between
Retirement Income - Insights From the 2018 Retirement Confidence Survey
Tax Cuts and Non-qualified Deferred Compensation
ERISA and the Independent Fiduciary: When and How Plans Should Use Them
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Discussions |
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This Newsletter:
BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter:
Message Boards Digest:
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Senior Pension Administrator - Combo DB/DC Plans|
[Official Guidance]
Text of IRS Fiscal Year 2019 Program Letter (PDF) 9 pages. "[Employee Plans (EP)] will foster compliance through its robust voluntary corrections program, issue informal guidance in the form of Lists of Required Modifications (LRMs) to assist plan sponsors with plan document compliance and continue to update Fix-It Guides to assist with operational compliance. EP also will review input from the qualified plans community on the potential expansion of the scope of the determination letter program for amended individually designed plans as well as the self-correction of plan qualification failures." [Specific EP priorities are found on page 4, page 6,
and page 7.]
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[Advert.]
P&I DC West Conference | San Diego | Oct 21 - 23
Join leading executives who manage 401(k), 403(b), 457 and TSP plans at DC WEST. You'll learn how other plan sponsors analyze, develop, implement and measure programs for their participants, so you can improve your own plan. |
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[Guidance Overview]
New EPCRS Procedure: Electronic Submission of VCP and Not a Whole Lot More "Practitioners who have been hoping that this version of EPCRS would permit problem participant loans to be self-corrected and better identify what constitutes an 'insignificant' error will be disappointed. While acknowledging that these issues are outstanding, the new EPCRS does not address them. The raison d'être for the new procedure is to outline that, beginning in 2019, VCP submissions will be made electronically."
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The Good and Bad News Regarding the Recent PLR on Student Loan Repayment Assistance Programs "The retirement plan recordkeeper is unlikely to have the ability to monitor loan repayments, because they occur outside of the retirement plan ... [B]ecause the employer is not the lender, it will also presumably need to collect proof of loan repayments from all loan providers to employees ... [S]omeone will have to enroll employees and track opt-outs."
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Handling Late Remittances of Participant Loan Repayments and Elective Deferrals "[A]re participant contributions at issue? ... [W]hen were these participant contributions segregated from the employer's general assets? ... [Is] the remittance of the participant contributions actually late? This is the trickiest to answer ... If you've determined that late remittances did occur, what do you do to fix it?"
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Here's Why You Should Conduct a Retirement Plan Recordkeeper RFP "Recordkeeper pricing has never been more competitive, and in almost all cases the only way you'll obtain a recordkeeper's best pricing is through an RFP process.... [Y]ou can structure your RFP so that time-consuming tasks are taken off HR's plate by the winning bidder, even if the incumbent is the winner! ... [T]he transition to a new recordkeeper, or even an existing one ... can often be a positive experience for employees, if properly communicated."
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[Advert.]
Now is a great time to join Worldwide Employee Benefits Network (WEB)
Worldwide Employee Benefits Network provides me a forum for education and information exchange with other Benefits Executives. Join today. |
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"One lesson from this case, independent of the committee actions that saved the day for NYU, is that committees should have formal programs for fiduciary education. The fiduciary education should cover, at the least: Who is a fiduciary and what are the fiduciary responsibilities? How do fiduciaries fulfill those duties in the real world? How do fiduciaries review and examine the advice that they receive? And, how do fiduciaries monitor the costs and compensation related to their service providers and plan investments? That education should be reinforced at least annually, together with updates on current developments. Finally, new committee members should be educated about their roles and responsibilities when they start serving." [Sacerdote v. New York Univ., No. 16-6284 (S.D.N.Y. July 31, 2018)]
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JPMorgan Employees Say 401(k) Fee Class Is 300K Strong "The JPMorgan employees who filed suit in 2017 asked a federal judge ... to certify their case as a class action.... The lawsuit claims JPMorgan and its affiliates profited at the expense of workers' retirement savings by filling the company's 401(k) plan with funds managed by JPMorgan or by affiliated entities like BlackRock Institutional Trust Co." [Beach v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, No. 17-563 (S.D.N.Y., motion for class cert. Oct. 1, 2018)]
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House Acts on Retirement Savings Enhancements; Ball Is Now in Senate's Court "The most viable path for [the Family Savings Act] to become law is to be considered on its own merits by the Senate ... [where similar legislation] was introduced in March in the Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act of 2018 (RESA) ... These Senate and House bills share some key provisions, including ... [1] liberaliz[ing] rules for employers to participate in a common retirement plan with other employers, historically referred to as multiple employer plans, or MEPs; and [2] encourag[ing] use of lifetime income investments in retirement plans."
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FASB Changes to Defined Benefit Plan Disclosure Requirements "The changes are aimed at improving the effectiveness of financial statement disclosures by eliminating the requirement for certain disclosures FASB no longer considers cost beneficial and requiring new disclosures that FASB considers relevant. The board does not anticipate significant cost increases because of the changes, as the information shown in the newly required disclosure should be readily available."
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Real Assets' Role in Public Pension Portfolios "Core real assets have hybrid characteristics, providing the opportunity for a stable, volatility-reducing income stream and potential equity-like upside from price appreciation.... [An] allocation addition of core real assets as small as 5% can significantly enhance portfolio outcomes."
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How Does Delayed Retirement Affect Mortality and Health? "Working longer is associated with lower mortality, depression, and diabetes risk for both men and women ... [D]elayed retirement reduces 5-year mortality rate for men ages 62‑65 by 2.4 percentage points, or a 32-percent reduction relative to non-workers.... A 32-percent reduction in mortality increases age-60 life expectancy by about three months if the effect applies only to the ages studied, but longer if the effect is permanent."
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Selected Discussions |
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Refund of Loan Principal Overpayment -- Where to Report on Form 5500 I'm working on a 2017 Form 5500 for a plan and have a small issue. One participant got a refund of $50 loan principal overpayment in 2017 for a 2016 loan. How do I report the refund? As a benefit payment?
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QDRO Procedures for Non-ERISA Plan Client is a religious organization with both 401(a) and 403(b) plans. Participant terminated employment and requested distribution. It was delayed because of an incorrect address. During the delay period (i.e., after the distribution would have otherwise been made but before it actually was), the plan administrator received a consent order for a pending divorce. Neither the sponsor nor the administrator (which is a MAJOR provider) seems to have any written QDRO procedures for the plans.... it's just been a practice where the administrator generally receives a DRO and the plan administrator approves it. Are the plans in compliance with Code section 414(p)(6)(B)? Should the distribution still be made?
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Press Releases |
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Joseph A. LoCicero Receives the John L. Lewis Award
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New Leadership for the Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice
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Pentegra Names Thad Coward Director, TPA Operations
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DOL Litigation Results in Atlanta Trust Company Paying $4.5 Million in Restitution to Employee Stock Ownership Plan
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Most Popular Items in the Previous Issue |
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Mistakes Made in Processing Elective Deferrals -- Now What?
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Are You 'Doing Enough' to Avoid ERISA Statutory Penalties?
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Connect
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BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park, Florida 32789
(407) 644-4146
Lois Baker, J.D., President
David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
Holly Horton, Business Manager
BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter, ISSN no. 1536-9587. Copyright 2018 BenefitsLink.com, Inc. All materials contained in this newsletter are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of BenefitsLink.com, Inc., or in the case of third party materials, the owner of those materials. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notices from copies of the content.
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