[Guidance Overview]

IRS Makes Significant Enhancements to the EPCRS Program for Pension Plan Overpayments

"The new correction principles are beneficial to plan sponsors because they reduce the need to seek repayment from participants or beneficiaries who received overpayments, and in some cases, do not require the plan sponsor, participants, or beneficiaries to reimburse the plan for overpayments to participants."  MORE >>

Cheiron

COVID-19 Reduces U.S. Life Expectancy

"An arm of the [CDC] is reporting, based on early data, that overall life expectancy at birth dropped by 1.5 years between 2019 and 2020, to 77.3 years. For U.S. residents who are currently 65 years old, life expectancy fell by 0.8 years, to 18.8 additional years. The drop at age 65 was about the same for men and women."  MORE >>

Treasury & Risk; free registration required

Notes from Meeting of American Academy of Actuaries Multiemployer Committee with Agencies to Discuss MPRA Application Process (PDF)

8 pages. Topics include: [1] Investment return assumptions; [2] Mortality assumptions; [3] New entrant assumptions; [4] Impact of COVID pandemic on actuarial assumptions; [5] Applicability of Actuarial Standards of Practice; and [6] Partition design.  MORE >>

American Academy of Actuaries

Managing Your Agency's CalPERS Pension Liabilities

"The mere act of paying the [unfunded accrued liability (UAL)] portion of your annual Required Contribution at the beginning of each fiscal year as a lump sum (instead of monthly) will save your agency 3.5% in interest for the year on that amount. Prepaying even larger amounts of UAL can dramatically reduce the size of your overall liability over time."  MORE >>

Best Best & Krieger LLP

Senators Murray and Underwood Reintroduce Legislation to Protect Women's Retirement Security

"[T]he Women's Retirement Protection Act of 2021 (WRPA) ... would strengthen consumer protections to safeguard retirement savings, increase eligibility for employer-sponsored retirement savings plans for part-time workers, increase access to information about retirement and savings tools, and help women with low incomes and survivors of domestic abuse get the retirement benefits they are entitled to following a divorce."  MORE >>

Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, U.S. Senate

[Opinion]

ARPA Rescue Is Literal for Distressed Multiemployer Plans

"[T]here are now over 150 Taft-Hartley plans plans in such critical condition they need immediate assistance (roughly 11 percent of all such plans). And the PBGC multiemployer insurance cupboard is bare from a wave of past failures and chronic premium undercollection.... So ARPA comes as welcome help to struggling plans and the union employees and retirees who rely on them."  MORE >>

Principal Financial Group

[Opinion]

American Academy of Actuaries Comment Letter to IRS on Temporary Funding Relief for Multiemployer Plans Under ARPA (PDF)

"Several of our comments focus on how to interpret the temporary funding relief under ARPA in combination with previous temporary funding relief elections. We also make comments regarding the process for electing relief, including whether there will be similar election forms, what the deadline requirements will be, who can sign the election, how to file, etc."  MORE >>

Multiemployer Plans Committee of the American Academy of Actuaries

[Opinion]

American Academy of Actuaries Request for IRS Guidance Relating to Single-Employer Plan Funding Relief Provisions of ARPA (PDF)

"The following areas are those where plan sponsors are most in need of guidance.... [1] Funding balance and contribution management ... [2] Making ARPA elections ... [3] Section 436 benefit restrictions and AFTAP certifications ... [4] Relief from late-payment penalties ... [5] Expected return on plan assets."  MORE >>

Pension Committee of the American Academy of Actuaries

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Proposes Electronic Filing Requirements for Certain Information Returns

"The new proposed regulations reduce the threshold by which filers must electronically file from 250 to 100 returns for the 2022 calendar year. For filings required after calendar year 2022, the threshold will be further reduced to 10 returns." [Includes a summary list of benefits-related forms included in the IRS proposal.]  MORE >>

Ascensus

[Guidance Overview]

Reverse Claw-Backs Revisited: IRS Issues Guidance on Adjustments for Stock-Based Compensation Costs and Cost Sharing Arrangements

"[Chief Counsel memorandum AM2021-04] addresses two timing issues related to IRS transfer pricing adjustments of payments made among participants in a non-SBC cost sharing agreement. By its terms, the memorandum discusses such issues only in respect of agreements that include reverse claw-back provisions, but the positions and authority are much more widely applicable -- signaling that taxpayers that added reverse claw-back provisions to their agreements are in no better position than those that did not (and in fact may be worse off)."  MORE >>

Caplin & Drysdale

Key Compensation Issues in Preparing for an IPO or SPAC Merger

"[It] is often the case that SPAC target companies do not have mature and fully market-competitive compensation structures. They depend on the SPAC to establish processes to prepare for a public company compensation structure, often an enormous challenge for young companies to achieve in the span of just a few months. The primary area of focus is often the company's equity grants in connection with the transaction and beyond, as further detailed later in this article."  MORE >>

Meridian Compensation Partners, LLC

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Form 5500-EZ Needs a Schedule A?

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SECURE ACT is Here: The Pros and Cons Explored

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Knowledge Group

Effective Executive Compensation Strategies: Treading Through the Difficult Challenges

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Knowledge Group

Trends and Updates in Pension Plan Investments and Plan Design: What You Must Know and Do

RECORDED

Knowledge Group

ESOP Formation Post-COVID-19: Current Approaches to Business Succession Planning

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Knowledge Group

Executive Compensation: Hot Buttons to Consider

RECORDED

Knowledge Group

Employee Benefits and Technology: Adapting Employee Benefits and Health Solutions to Meet the Needs of an Evolving Workforce

August 19, 2021 in GA

Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB] - Atlanta Chapter

Everything Roth

September 16, 2021 WEBCAST

Ascensus

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IRS Snapshot Reflects Updated 401(k) Hardship Distribution Rules

Mercer

IRS Expands Self-Correction Procedures But Eliminates Anonymous Voluntary Correction Program

Morgan Lewis

IRS VCP Submission Kit for Use When Plan Sponsor Was Not Eligible to Sponsor a SIMPLE IRA Plan

Internal Revenue Service [IRS]