[Guidance Overview]
"At its core, SECURE 2.0 seeks to expand coverage ... [1] by mandating auto-enrollment in 401(k), 403(b) and SIMPLE plans; [2] by making long-term, part-time workers eligible for participation in plans after two rather than three years; and [3] by permitting employers to provide de minimis financial incentives for employees to contribute to a 401(k) or 403(b) plan."
Faegre Drinker
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[Guidance Overview]
"Given the facts and circumstances standard for fiduciary compliance, and the lengthy list of best practices, the guidance may raise more questions than answers for plan fiduciaries."
Faegre Drinker
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[Guidance Overview]
"Based on the DOL's revised interpretation of the five-part test for identifying investment advice fiduciaries, it is more likely that plan service providers who provide rollover recommendations will need to rely on the Exemption in the future."
Thompson Hine
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[Guidance Overview]
"If DOL persists with and asserts this interpretation in future enforcement cases, it seems inevitable that its position will eventually be tested in court ... In the meantime, financial services providers will need to come to terms with DOL's position and consider their alternatives for continuing to be of service to retirement investors while operating on an ERISA-compliant basis."
Eversheds Sutherland
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"While there are several differences between bills, at the core is the major philosophical difference on how to solve the PBGC financial crisis -- EPPRA seeks to do it through federal funding while the Allen Act seeks to have the majority of the money come from every multiemployer pension plan by way of significantly increased PBGC premiums."
Cowden Associates, Inc.
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"Automatic enrollment plans enjoy about a 87% participation rate nationally, while those without it see ... participation rates that average around the 60% range. This means almost a quarter of the eligible workforce is missing out on the benefits of retirement savings simply due to the fact they weren't auto-enrolled in a plan."
Definiti
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"Americans are worrying about living costs, healthcare expenses, debt and saving for goals. And they are looking to their employers and benefit providers to help them. To help employers meet participants' needs and expectations, recordkeepers have expanded their workplace benefit programs beyond 401(k)s."
Corporate Insight
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"[W]hile it's true that there will always be some variability in a pension plan's funded status, managing it appropriately can help avoid nasty surprises ... and ultimately get plan sponsors to their desired destination."
River and Mercantile
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"The investment return assumption is the single most consequential of all actuarial assumptions in terms of its effect on a pension plan's finances. The sustained period of low interest rates since 2009, combined with lower projected returns for most asset classes, has caused many public pension plans to reduce their long-term expected investment returns."
National Association of State Retirement Administrators [NASRA]
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Benefits in General
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"Transparency is coming to health care much as it did with the retirement industry. The CAA removes gag clauses on price and quality information and requires 408(b)(2)-style broker compensation disclosure."
401(k) Specialist
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"More than half (56%) of 401(k) participants reduced their retirement plan contributions in the first year that they made health savings account (HSA) contributions ... The median dollar reduction in participant 401(k) contributions in the first year of HSA contributions was $34. However, deferral rates decreased by $5,127 at the 10th percentile."
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Executive Compensation and Nonqualified Plans
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"Typically limited in scope and less burdensome than an examination or audit, an IRS compliance check is a review process the IRS uses to determine whether an organization is in compliance with IRS reporting requirements."
Hall Benefits Law
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Selected Discussions on the BenefitsLink Message Boards
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"Plan terminated a bunch of years ago, and accounts were paid out in drips and drabs. The only accounts left are for the owners and several people who left the company long ago (like 2010, 2011-ish). The employer doesn't have SSN for these people, so rollover places won't take the accounts. Pooled PSP, not at a nat'l provider or anything like that. What becomes of those accounts?"
BenefitsLink Message Boards
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"Anyone else seeing the recent letter from the IRS that the 2019 extension request was approved? Hearing from many of our clients and we actually received a letter today for our own plan! Anybody know what gives?"
BenefitsLink Message Boards
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"My question has to do with how the partial termination rules apply following a plan merger. Buyer is acquiring seller. Some of seller's employees will be let go -- some in 2021 and likely more in 2022. Seller's 401(k) will be maintained for the balance of 2021 and then merged into buyer's effective 1/1/2022. So some of the terminations will happen while seller's plan is free-standing and others will happen after the plans are merged."
BenefitsLink Message Boards
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