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NIPA Annual Forum & Expo
April 26, 2020 in TN
NIPA [National Institute of Pension Administrators]

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[Guidance Overview]

How Will the Repeal of Stretch IRAs Affect Estate Planning?

"[C]onduit trusts for designated beneficiaries will force the entire IRA to be paid to the beneficiary in as few as 10 years.... An accumulation trust will still be able to provide a beneficiary with substantial protection ... at the possible cost of higher income taxes being owed on amounts distributed from the IRA.... [A] minor child ... is considered an eligible designated beneficiary until he or she reaches the age of majority, and any remaining IRA must be distributed within 10 years after that.... These rules do not apply to a participant who died prior to January 1, 2020."

Thompson Coburn

[Guidance Overview]

SECURE Act Increases Access to Retirement Plans with 'Pooled Employer Plans'

"PEPs, like traditional MEPs, are required to disclose with their Form 5500 filings a list of participating employers and a good faith estimate of the percentage of total contributions and aggregate account balances attributable to each such participating employer. In practice, traditional MEPs ... appear to have had difficulty complying with this requirement and this has resulted in a corresponding DOL enforcement initiative.... Timely remittance of elective deferrals is a long-standing DOL enforcement initiative for plans of all types and there could be particular logistical challenges for PEPs."

Morgan Lewis

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Memorandum Limits Exceptions for Retaining Signed Retirement Plan Documents

"On December 13, 2019 the IRS released a Chief Counsel Memorandum ... addressing '[c]oncerns ... that taxpayers may argue that [Val Lanes v. Comm'r] supports the proposition that a taxpayer may attempt to meet the taxpayer's burden to have an executed plan document based on the production of an unsigned plan and a pattern and practice of signing documents given by an advisor.' ... Unfortunately, the Memorandum does not provide any guidance about the factors the IRS will consider in determining whether a taxpayer has met its burden that it executed a plan document."

Stinson

[Guidance Overview]

SECURE Act Changes Retirement Plan Requirements

"Under the Act, plans have until the 2022 plan year ... to be amended.... Practitioners should be aware that the safe harbor provisions in the Act regarding selecting lifetime income providers do not have an effective date and are effective on the date of enactment."

Thomson Reuters Practical Law

Inheriting a Parent's IRA or 401(k)? Here's How the SECURE Act Could Create a Disaster

"[U]nder the SECURE Act, there are no required minimum distributions for inherited IRAs ... The only technical required minimum distribution is after the 10th year, which would be the remaining balance. In the case of an inherited IRA through a trust, that would be the entire amount, with no opportunity to take out money during the 10-year wait."

MarketWatch

Past Practices Cited in ERISA Lawsuit Against Plan Sponsors

"The lawsuit argues that, although the plaintiff is a participant only in the Rollins plan ... she may also represent participants in the Western plan 'because of the commonality of fiduciaries, service providers and investments.' Western is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rollins. The defendants are accused of having imprudently selected higher-cost actively managed mutual funds and retail share classes versus the lowest cost institutional share classes of the same mutual funds." [Fleming v. Rollins, Inc., No. 19-5732 (N.D. Ga. complaint filed Dec. 20, 2019)]

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Financial Surprises Retirees Want to Avoid

"[1] Medicare costs more than I thought ... [2] My tax bill went up in retirement ... [3] I downsized my house, but I didn't get a windfall ... [4] I retired early, and health care is expensive and hard to get ... [5] My nest egg is disappearing faster than I thought it would ... [6] Long-term care is more costly than I imagined."

Kiplinger

Small Plan Start-Up Tax Credit: 401(k) Plans Half-Off (or More) Beginning Jan. 1, 2020

"[T]he amount of the tax credit is now capped at $250 times the number of NHCEs eligible to participate in the plan up to a $5,000 annual maximum (but never less than $500), though, as we saw with prior law, the credit is still limited to 50% of the start-up costs. Additionally, if the new plan automatically enrolls employees into the plan on a uniform basis (but at no minimum rate), the employer will get an additional annual credit for start-up costs of $500 per year. And all of this is effective Jan. 1, 2020."

National Association of Plan Advisors [NAPA]

Retirees: Time to Perform Your January 1, 2020 Personal Actuarial Valuation

"If you invested in equities during 2019, you may have experienced an actuarial gain on your investments during the year. What actions should you take in response? [The authors] recommend that you perform an actuarial valuation of your assets and spending liabilities, and document your thought process in an Actuarial Report that you can revisit at this time next year."

Ken Steiner, FSA Retired

SECURE Act: Non-Elective Contribution Notice

"I saw this in an article about the SECURE Act: 'Nonelective 401(k) Safe Harbor Changes for Traditional and QACA Safe Harbors - The SECURE Act eliminates the notice requirement for safe harbor plans that make non-elective contributions to employees.' I can't put my finger on this in the of the Act. Can someone confirm this?"

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