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Retirement Plans Newsletter January 7, 2021 |
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Newly Posted Basics of 401(k) Plans Series - Session 1
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021: Understanding the Health and Welfare and Retirement Provisions
Basics of 401(k) Plans Series - Session 2
The Current State of Public Defined Contribution Plans: Findings from the Public Retirement Research Lab
Basics of 401(k) Plans Series - Session 3
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Discussions |
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This Newsletter:
BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter:
Message Boards Digest:
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[Official Guidance]
74 pages. "[PBGC] is amending its regulations on Allocating Unfunded Vested Benefits to Withdrawing Employers and Notice, Collection, and Redetermination of Withdrawal Liability. The amendments implement statutory provisions affecting the determination of a withdrawing employer's liability under a multiemployer plan and annual withdrawal liability payment amount when the plan has had benefit reductions, benefit suspensions, surcharges, or contribution increases that must be disregarded. The amendments also provide simplified withdrawal liability calculation methods." Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation [PBGC] |
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[Guidance Overview]
"The IRS has extended the remote notarization relief that gives plans and participants greater flexibility for participant elections, including spousal consent ... The IRS has also requested comments on this relief, including comments as to whether this relief should be made permanent." Seyfarth |
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[Guidance Overview]
"The Proposal would have required ERISA fiduciaries to vote all proxies which would have an economic impact on the plan and conversely, not vote any proxies which would not have such an impact.... [T]he DOL removed this language from the [final regulation]. Instead, the [final regulation] emphasizes that an ERISA fiduciary need not vote every proxy and in fact, should not exercise shareholder rights if the cost of doing so would outweigh the economic benefits of exercising such rights." Mayer Brown |
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[Guidance Overview]
"Proposed premium filing instructions and My PAA screens include a new question requiring plan sponsors to report whether an asset transfer between existing plans taking place on the first day of the plan year is de minimis. For the transferee plan in a de minimis merger, filers will have to report whether the receiving plan has less assets than the transferor plan immediately before the transfer. PBGC needs this information to verify the participant count date." Mercer |
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"The final rule adopts the proposal with one modification to the applicability date.... The final rule applies to plan loan offset amounts, including QPLOs, treated as distributed on or after Jan. 1, 2021. However, taxpayers may rely on the rule for plan loan offsets treated as distributed on or after Aug. 20, 2020." Mercer |
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"There are three pivotal challenges for a business owner that can emerge when employees can't retire on time ... [1] Employees who stay on the job past the traditional retirement age can create higher costs for the business through increased payroll and benefit costs.... [2] Delayed exit and succession plans ... [3] Perceived lower business value." MassMutual |
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"Many investment advisors for public agency 457(b) plans believe that their public agency clients must have a retirement plan committee in order for the plan to have a proper plan administrator or fiduciary structure.... [T]here are a lot of good reasons: [1] not to establish a formal committee as the plan administrator; or [2] to limit the scope of a committee's responsibilities." Best Best & Krieger LLP |
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"[I]investment returns from [single premium life annuity] contracts fall short of the returns IRS mandates for [lump sum distribution] present values, and only recently have barely exceeded 30-Year Treasury Rates.... A rational investor can tolerate a fair amount of default risk to obtain higher investment returns and retain control of his retirement assets.... A retiree's best option may be to diversify his investments through a discount broker or through equity purchases directly from multiple public companies to minimize purchase costs." H. C. Foster & Company |
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[Opinion]
"Were a plan terminating a defined benefit plan and addressing the issue of checks uncashed by missing participants to follow the PBGC's guidance, it would remit the full benefit amount to the PBGC and then seek a refund from the IRS of the taxes erroneously withheld.... [T]he PBGC's guidance and Rev. Rul. 2019-19 provide seemingly inconsistent guidance to plan administrators, in at least some missing participant situations. In light of this apparent possible conflict, the Council requests that the PBGC and the IRS address this issue in order to ensure uniformity in agency policy." American Benefits Council |
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Benefits in General |
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[Official Guidance]
"Victims of Hurricane Zeta that began October 28, 2020 now have until March 1, 2021, to file various individual and business tax returns and make tax payments ... Individuals and households who reside or have a business in George, Greene, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, and Stone counties qualify for tax relief." Internal Revenue Service [IRS] |
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[Guidance Overview]
"[1] New investment duties regulation effective Jan. 12 ... [2] Cybersecurity and mitigating against potential cyber liability ... [3] What to do about missing participants ... [4] New developments for defined contribution retirement savings plans: Long term part-time employees ... Pooled Employer Plans ... [5] New reporting and disclosure requirements: Health plan transparency ... Lifetime income disclosures ... Electronic disclosure Rules." The Wagner Law Group |
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[Guidance Overview]
"If adopting any of the [health or dependent care FSA] relief offered by the Act, plan sponsors should consider taking steps to limit their financial exposure, including limiting the number of mid-year election changes that will be permitted and prohibiting reductions in pre-tax FSA elections or carryovers of unused contributions or balances that would result in underfunding of reimbursements that have already been made.... [Retirement plan] sponsors must begin to track hours worked by LTPTEs for plan years beginning in 2021 and retain that information in future years so they can determine whether plan eligibility is met under this provision for any plan years starting after December 31, 2023.... Plan sponsors should be aware that they will be inviting a potentially significant recordkeeping burden if they decide to amend their 401(k) plans to provide employer contributions
to LTPTEs and subject those contributions to a vesting schedule." Wilkins Finston Friedman Law Group LLP |
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43-page guide maps out what you need to do and when to keep your benefits plans compliant, organized by plan type: [1] Health and welfare plans; [2] Defined benefit retirement plans; and [3] Defined contribution retirement plans. Segal; free registration required |
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Press Releases |
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HUB International Acquires the Assets of Garnett Retirement Group Inc.
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Marsh & McLennan Agency Acquires Compass Financial Partners
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Most Popular Items in the Previous Issue |
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