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Retirement Plans Newsletter July 18, 2019 |
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Webcasts, Conferences How Pensions in America have Changed (and Should Change Again)
Current Developments in Employment Law
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Discussions |
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This Newsletter:
BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter:
Message Boards Digest:
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[Guidance Overview]
More About Reg BI, and Preventing MEP Spoilage from the 'One Bad Apple' "Reg BI imposes obligations related to disclosure, duty of care, conflicts of interest, compliance, and recordkeeping.... [T]he most complex of these obligations [is] the duty to identify and disclose, mitigate, or eliminate conflicts of interest.... While many MEP documents provide a mechanism for spinning off the 'bad' part of a plan, this process has not been sanctioned by the IRS as a means of avoiding the application of the one bad apple rule. The proposed regulations give MEP sponsors the needed guidance to protect the innocent part of the MEP in this situation."
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Ways Employers Can Help Workers Prepare for Retirement (PDF) "[1] Offer a retirement savings plan ... [2] Encourage workers to actively engage in retirement planning ... [3] Refresh and promote the availability of retirement education and advice ... [4] Promote short- and long-term financial security by offering a variety of benefits ... [5] Educate preretirees about social security benefits ... [6] Be an aging-friendly employer ... [7] Enable workers to work past age 65 with a flexible transition into retirement."
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Fiduciary Clarity Needed for Successful Open MEP Expansion "Open MEPs as detailed in the SECURE Act offer a structure for a small plan to get maximum fiduciary support ... but the roles and responsibilities of all the parties involved can be hard to keep straight."
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Welcome to the Committee: Is Fiduciary Responsibility Retroactive? "A federal judge has weighed in on a question relevant to new plan committee fiduciaries: When and how does their liability for the decisions of previous committee members begin? ... [T]he Court agrees with Defendants that Plaintiffs must present evidence creating a genuine issue of material fact that the Successor Fiduciary Defendants had actual knowledge of their predecessors' alleged breaches in selecting the Affiliated Funds." [Fuller v. SunTrust Banks, Inc., No. 11-784 (N.D. Ga. Jul. 16, 2019)]
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A Closer Look at Legislative Proposals Impacting Retirement "How much might some of the recent legislative proposals for expanding access to employer sponsored retirement plans improve retirement income adequacy for current workers? This paper examines this by simulating the impact of some of the more important aspects of current legislative proposals, including: [1] Requiring retirement plans for all but the smallest employers. [2] Covering part-time employees. [3] Introducing auto portability. [4] Providing the option of guaranteed income for life from 401(k) and 403(b) plans. [5] Allowing open multiple employer plans (MEPs). [6] Modifying required minimum distributions."
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Adviser Industry Demands Delay of New Jersey Fiduciary Regs, Deference to SEC "Advocacy and lobbying organizations representing the interests of brokers/dealers and investment advisers operating in New Jersey continue to voice their disapproval of the proposed regulations."
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401(k) Fixed Income 'Flight' Continues "June saw, on average, 0.017% of 401k balances traded daily and 17 of 20 days favored fixed-income funds.... [T]rading inflows mainly went to bond, stable value, and money market funds and outflows were primarily from large U.S. equity, company stock, and small U.S. equity funds."
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Benefits in General |
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"[T]he Board held that a company's decision to grant nonunion employees an additional paid day off while requiring union employees to work the same day was lawful under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The analysis offered in the majority's opinion may assist employers in understanding how they can comply with the NLRA when, for legitimate business reasons, they decide to grant a benefit to non-represented employees while withholding the same benefit from employees who are represented by a union." [Merck, Sharp & Dohme Corp., NLRB Nos. 05-CA-168541, 06-CA-163815, and 22-CA-168483 (May 7, 2019)]
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Selected Discussions |
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Filing a Final 5500-EZ for 2019 (Not 2018) It's July and I would like to file a final 5500-EZ for 2019. Do we still just cross out the 18 on the form and put 2019 or is there a preferred method these days?
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Adding a Fixed (Not Discretionary) Match to Safe Harbor Plan Mid-Year I know I can add a discretionary match to a safe harbor plan mid-year. But can I add a stated match? We have a client that wants to make a big match on top of the 3% SH. More than the discretionary match constraints would allow.
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Compensation for Calculating Safe Harbor Nonelective 3% Contribution For a plan that chooses to pay in the Safe Harbor 3% Non-Elective contribution on a payroll basis, are they required to "calculate" the contribution based on annual compensation and thus need to do a "true-up" each year? I seem to be finding evidence that for the Safe Harbor Matching contribution you can choose to calculate and deposit it based on a payroll basis (as long as it's chosen/defined in the plan document).
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Press Releases |
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Jerry Schlichter Selected to Business Journals' Nationwide List of 100 Attorney Influencers
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Most Popular Items in the Previous Issue |
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Flexible Spending Rules to Avoid FIREing at 4%
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BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter, ISSN no. 1536-9587. Copyright 2019 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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