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Retirement Plans Newsletter
June 9, 2021
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► 9 New Job Opportunities
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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Clarifies COVID-19 Partial Plan Termination Relief But Questions Remain
"[It] is not clear whether the IRS will allow plan sponsors to rely on the relief if the plan sponsor vested affected participants as a result of a partial plan termination prior to the enactment of the Act.... If the relief must be provided to all affected participants, then the participants who took a distribution will have received an overpayment -- which requires plan sponsors to attempt to recover the overpayments and to contribute any unrecovered amounts to the plan.... The other option is to limit the relief only to those participants who did not take a distribution." MORE >>
Trucker Huss
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[Guidance Overview]
Best Interest Standard of Care for Advisors, Part 53
"The new fiduciary 'rule' has two parts with their own effective dates.... [T]he expanded definition of fiduciary advice became effective for enforcement purposes on February 16.... [T]he prohibited transaction exemption also became on February 16, but a non-enforcement policy delayed most, but not all, of its conditions to December 21. The condition now in effect is satisfaction of the Impartial Conduct Standards." MORE >>
FredReish.com
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MetLife Fights DOL Subpoena Over Missing Participants
"Although the primary dispute is over DOL's jurisdiction to investigate MetLife's missing annuitant practices, DOL's court filings include a controversial argument about when benefits transferred to an insurer in an annuity purchase cease to have ERISA protection." MORE >>
Mercer
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So, Your State Says Your Company Needs a Retirement Plan?
"Most state-sponsored plans are designated as Roth individual retirement accounts (IRAs), using investments chosen by the state, and are generally low-cost, so there are absolutely benefits. However, there are also benefits to creating a customized plan that works for you and your employees." MORE >>
Vestwell
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California Employers Face Impending CalSavers Deadline
"Employers with 50-99 employers that do not offer a plan have until June 30 to register.... After June 30, 2021, there will be one more registration deadline: employers with five or more will have until June 30, 2022 to register. Employers that do not register by the applicable deadline face penalties of $250 per employee and additional penalties for sustained noncompliance." MORE >>
American Retirement Association [ARA]
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Mixed Benefits: Identifying a Single Glide Path for All
"Plan sponsors increasingly maintain mixed benefit structures because of changing defined benefit (DB) plan offerings and merger and acquisition activity. Differences in DB plan coverage should be considered when selecting a glide path for all participants in a defined contribution plan's target date offering.... [It] is possible to identify a glide path appropriate for all participants by closely considering those without DB plan access within the workforce." MORE >>
T. Rowe Price
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Target Date Funds: A 'Time Bomb' in a Retirement Tool for the Masses?
"A congressional committee has asked the GAO to investigate target date funds. [One consultant] calls TDFs a 'time bomb,' saying they hold too much risk near the target retirement date. But many believe TDFs are a valuable tool to help inexperienced investors build sensible retirement portfolios." MORE >>
ThinkAdvisor
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DOL Wants Supreme Court to Weigh In on Excessive Fee Suit Thresholds
"[T]he government cites at least two plausible claims for breach of ERISA's duty of prudence ... They noted that the Seventh Circuit had determined that because the plaintiffs had access to some low-cost investment options, they could not object to the fiduciaries' decision to offer other investment vehicles that allegedly carried unreasonably high management or recordkeeping fees -- a position inconsistent with that of the Eighth Circuit -- and apparently with that of the [DOL]." [Hughes v. Northwestern Univ., No. 18-2569 (7th Cir. Mar. 25, 2020; cert. pet. filed Jun. 19, 2020; brief for U.S. as amicus curiae filed May 25, 2021)] MORE >>
American Retirement Association [ARA]
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Calculation of Self-Employed Participant's Earned Income Needs TPA/CPA Coordination
"[E]arned income calculations [can] needlessly delay the completion of year-end plan testing and employer tax returns. In most cases, the root cause is the same -- the 401(k) TPA and CPA have not coordinated the back-and-forth process necessary for each to complete their respective work timely.... The key is understanding starting point information a 401(k) TPA needs to calculate earned income while plan testing." MORE >>
Employee Fiduciary
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Investors Seeking Protection Turn to Annuities in the First Quarter
"Registered index-linked annuities (RILA) and fixed-rate deferred (FRD) annuities -- products providing principal protection and investment growth -- drove total annuity sales in the first quarter. Total annuity sales were $61 billion, up 9% from first quarter 2020[.]" MORE >>
LIMRA
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Employee Benefits Jobs |
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Selected New Discussions |
Participant Loans/Rollover of Note Following Loan Offset
"I've been reading up on all of the rules regarding loan offsets and the ability to recontribute those amounts through the extended due date of their tax return following loan offset. But what has not been made very clear anywhere is how these rules interplay with the ability to rollover the note itself following offset. Can I still roll over the note even after the loan offset?"
BenefitsLink Message Boards
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Repayment Deadline for Coronavirus-Related Loan?
"As many probably remember, initially it was indicated that a participant could take up to a $100,000 participant loan through the CARES Act. It was also described that the repayment could be deferred for up to a year. Then after reviewing closer, the year was to be no later than January 1, 2021. In any event, there was confusion on this. I thought I read something about how a repayment will be considered timely if it was made on or prior to February 28, 2021. Did anyone else remember this?"
BenefitsLink Message Boards
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Full Vesting Required Due to Termination of All Participant-Employees Upon Sale of Company?
"Client's owner sold the company. All employees have been hired by the new company. The plan itself is staying open for a few years, because the owner now works as a consultant for the buyer and is getting paid through the old company. I know that, were the plan to formally terminate, everyone becomes automatically 100% vested, but this isn't a plan termination. Full vesting required here?"
BenefitsLink Message Boards
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Press Releases |
PBI's CertiDeath® Saves Over $100 Million in Overpayments to Deceased Pension Participants
PBI Research Services
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Broker Dealers and Advisors Risk Prohibited Transactions When Recommending IRA Rollovers
Fiduciary Decisions
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Last Issue's Most Popular Items |
When and for Whom Are Roth Conversions Most Beneficial? A New Set of Guidelines, Cautions and Caveats
Edward F. McQuarrie, via SSRN
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Collective Investment Trusts: Important Fiduciary Considerations
Manning & Napier
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Money Management During Retirement
Meld Financial, Inc.
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BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter, ISSN no. 1536-9587.
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