[Guidance Overview]

DOL Offers Guidance on How to Keep Track of Your Plan Participants, Part 1 (PDF)

"Some of the suggestions on the DOL's list ... can be quite effective. While this guidance does not create a safe harbor for plan fiduciaries, a showing that the plan followed the DOL's best practices would certainly be helpful if a question about missing participants is raised on examination."  MORE >>

Boutwell Fay LLP

[Sponsor]

ASC Webcast: All You Need To Know About the SECURE / CARES Acts

Do you have questions on the implementation of the new rules applicable to retirement plans in the SECURE and CARES Acts? ASC’s John Griffin, JD, LLM will discuss the latest guidance, issues and developments with regard to these acts. Learn More!

[Guidance Overview]

ARPA to the Rescue: Direct Assistance Available for Multiemployer and Single-Employer Pension Plans

"For multiemployer plans, ARPA provides for direct financial assistance without a repayment obligation. It also provides opportunities to extend funding zone status, retain funding improvement and rehabilitation plans, and modify existing liability amortization requirements. For single-employer plans, ARPA also provides some limited funding relief."  MORE >>

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

IRS TE/GE Division Releases New Compliance Initiatives

"Joining the existing strategies on participant loans, earned income for self-employed plans and required minimum distributions in large defined benefit plans are ... [1] Exempt organizations that sponsor retirement plans ... [2] One-participant 401(k) plans ... [3] Worker classification ... [4] Plan liabilities and unrelated business income."  MORE >>

RSM US

Employer 401(k) Cybersecurity Responsibilities

"Review and monitor providers ... Check insurance coverage ... Review provider contracts ... Get help if you need it ... This issue is evolving."  MORE >>

Lawton Retirement Plan Consultants

Are You Sure You Can Use the QPAM Exemption?

"To be a QPAM ... is not tantamount to satisfying the QPAM Exemption. Moreover, the QPAM Exemption itself is subject to myriad conditions, the failure to meet only one of which can wreak havoc on a compliance strategy. [The authors] provide an overview and highlight potential trap doors in a Q&A format."  MORE >>

Stradley Ronon

Managing Pension Risk in 2021

"[Plan sponsors] can choose to minimize, eliminate, or fully take on the various risks and there are many different tools available to plan sponsors to help them handle a given risk. What risks are most prevalent in 2021 and what are some ideas plan sponsors should be thinking about to optimize their risk management this year?"  MORE >>

River and Mercantile

PBGC Simplifies Withdrawal Liability Calculation for Multiemployer Pension Plans

"The agency expects the changes will reduce actuarial fees paid by multiemployer plans, but it admits the simplified methods might not reduce the withdrawal liability assessed on employers."  MORE >>

PLANSPONSOR; free registration may be required

Despite Global Pandemic, Corporate Pension Performance for FY 2020 Improves Slightly Over FY 2019

"In 2020, despite a 67-basis-point decline in the discount rate, the funded ratio for the Milliman 100 plans climbed slightly, from 87.5% at fiscal year-end (FYE) 2019 to 88.4% at FYE 2020.... [The] improvement in plan assets was offset by an 8% growth in pension liabilities, with the discount rate dropping from 3.08% at FYE 2019 to 2.41% at FYE 2020."  MORE >>

Milliman Retirement Town Hall

[Opinion]

Reform Needed to Improve Teachers' Retirement Plans

"The problem is largely a result of the multivendor systems common in teachers’ supplemental retirement plans. Brokers descend on unsophisticated teachers at work and sometimes at home, mostly offering high-priced annuities."  MORE >>

Fred Barstein, via InvestmentNews; subscription may be required

ERISA's Fee-Shifting Provision Does Not Support a Fee Award Against Counsel

"The Eleventh Circuit agreed with Peer's attorney that ERISA's fee-shifting provision is not to sanction attorney misconduct and cannot be used as a basis to assess fees against Peer's attorney." [Peer v. Liberty Life Assurance Co. of Boston, No. 19-13974 (11th Cir. Apr. 6, 2021)]  MORE >>

Roberts Disability Law

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Controlled Group Members Have Different Plan Years -- How to Determine the HCEs?

"Two plans are in a controlled group. Plan A is a 6/30 year-end, and Plan B is a 12/31 year-end. How do I determine who is an HCE?"

BenefitsLink Message Boards

Unpaid RMDs -- What If the Plan Administrator Didn't Know a Participant Had Died?

"The Internal Revenue Manual directs an Employee Plans examiner not to challenge a plan for failing to meet Section 401(a)(9) if the plan's administrator could not locate the distributee after a diligent search that included IRS-specified steps. But that direction does not speak to a situation in which an individual-account retirement plan paid no involuntary minimum distribution because the plan's administrator didn't know the participant had died. How often does it happen that no one has filed a claim within 10 or 11 years after a participant's death?"

BenefitsLink Message Boards

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HUB International Acquires the Assets of Georgia-based Plan Sponsor Consultants

HUB International

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Best Practices in Fiduciary Governance

April 21, 2021 WEBCAST

fi360

Don’t Become a Statistic: ERISA Litigation Trends and Planning Steps You Can Take to Avoid Them

April 22, 2021 WEBCAST

Hunton Andrews Kurth

► View All Upcoming    ► View Webcast Recordings

IRS Postpones Deadline for 2020 IRA Contributions But Many Important Deadlines Unaffected

Appleby Retirement Dictionary

Near-Retiree Knowledge of Social Security Retirement Benefits

MassMutual

Courts Weigh In on Participant Data Under ERISA

Eversheds Sutherland