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Retirement Plans Newsletter July 3, 2020 |
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Newly Posted Third Time's a Charm? DOL Proposes a New Fiduciary Investment Advice Exemption
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Discussions |
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[Guidance Overview] New Electronic Disclosure Regulations Provide Additional Safe Harbor for ERISA Disclosures (PDF) "[A]dministrators may want to consider requiring additional safeguards (such as online tracking or online participant acknowledgment) to help prove that participants have read and understood the electronic disclosures they receive.... [In] light of the Supreme Court taking a strict interpretation of when a participant has actual knowledge for purposes of an ERISA claim in Intel Corp. Investment Policy Committee v. Sulyma, adding more safeguards may be helpful in the event of an ERISA claim." Boutwell Fay LLP |
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[Guidance Overview] IRS Releases COVID-19 Relief and Other Guidance on Mid-Year Changes to Safe Harbor Plans "[Notice 2020-52] clarifies that contributions made to HCEs are not included in the definition of safe harbor contributions.... A mid-year change to reduce contributions to HCEs, however, is a mid-year change to the plan's required annual safe harbor notice content. As a result, when a safe harbor plan is amended mid-year to reduce or eliminate contributions to HCEs, an updated safe harbor notice must be provided to all affected HCEs ... and those HCEs must be given an opportunity to change their deferral elections." Warner Norcross & Judd LLP |
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[Guidance Overview] DOL Proposes a New Fiduciary Investment Advice Exemption "Aligning with the SEC's Regulation Best Interest, the Proposed Exemption is an extraordinary development in the form of a class exemption allowing financial institutions to give fiduciary investment advice to participants, plans and IRAs and to receive compensation resulting from that advice. Because of its breadth, the Proposed Exemption might be viewed as a 'one stop shop' for providers of many types of fiduciary investment advice." Groom Law Group |
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[Guidance Overview] "The [DOL] has released a technical amendment that implements the Fifth Circuit's 2018 vacatur of the DOL's fiduciary rule. The DOL also released a proposed prohibited transaction class exemption addressing fiduciary investment advice to retirement investors, including in the context of rollovers." Thomson Reuters Practical Law |
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ERISA Pension Plan Liability: 10th Circuit Rules in Favor of Foreign Parent of U.S. Subsidiary "[If] a foreign member of the company's controlled group is not engaged in trade or business in the United States, its overall contacts with the United States are minimal, and it has not participated in that company's day-to-day operations, particularly as it relates to the establishment, funding, and/or administration of the pension plan, U.S. federal or state courts will lack personal jurisdiction over the foreign member. Consequently, U.S. courts will generally dismiss any collective action against the foreign member, and the foreign member will likely avoid ERISA pension liability." [GCIU-Employer Retirement Fund v. Coleridge Fine Arts, No. 19-3161 (10th Cir. Apr. 6, 2020)] Ogletree Deakins |
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Death by Paperwork? ESG Investing Probe Hints at Onerous Pile-On "A series of form letters sent to retirement plans hints at how the [DOL] may enforce a new requirement that sponsors justify socially conscious investments. One such letter ... presses plan administrators to provide 13 types of supporting documents, including: the names, addresses, and duties of those responsible for making investment decisions, proxy voting policies, and myriad financial statements associated with the plan design." Cohen Milstein |
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Retirement Lifestyle and Spending: Women Retirees' Expectations vs. Realities (PDF) "The overall expectations for lifestyle in retirement were more likely to be met for married and never-married women retirees.... Widowed women retirees were least likely to say that overall spending was in line with their expectations and most likely to say it was much lower than expected." Employee Benefit Research Institute [EBRI] |
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Press Releases |
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National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions Elects New Board Officers
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