[Official Guidance]

Text of Draft IRS Instructions for Form 8515-F: Qualified Disaster Retirement Plan Distributions and Repayments (PDF)

21 pages; Dec. 7, 2021. "Form 8915-F is a redesigned Form 8915. Beginning in 2021, additional alphabetical Forms 8915 (that is, Form 8915-G, Form 8915-H, etc.) will not be issued. The same Form 8915-F will be used for distributions for 2020 and later disasters and for each year of reporting of income and repayments of those distributions. The boxes you check in items A and B will help us determine the exact year of the form you are filing, and the year of the qualified disasters, qualified disaster distributions, and qualified distributions you are reporting."  MORE >>

Internal Revenue Service [IRS]

[Sponsor]

CE Webcast: Fundamentals of Qualified Retirement Plans for 2022

Are you new to the retirement plan industry or a professional looking for a review? ASCi’s Fundamentals of Qualified Retirement Plans 5-Part Series will give you a solid foundation in the rules applicable to qualified retirement plans. Register Now!

[Guidance Overview]

Increased Flexibility Breathes Life Into a Longstanding Multiemployer Pension Plan Design

"Since [variable annuity pension plans (VAPPs)] were introduced in 1953, their appeal has been limited by the lack of design options and the volatility that participants experience in the event of negative investment performance. In 2014, the IRS issued regulations providing additional flexibility for VAPP designs. The regulations allow designs ... that provide a less volatile benefit to participants while continuing to offer better funding stability as compared to Traditional DB Plans."  MORE >>

Morgan Lewis

Real Estate Investments Increasing in DC Plans

"A new report suggests defined contribution plan investors have grown more sophisticated in their knowledge of the real estate asset class and many are looking closer at asset-level and manager performance."  MORE >>

PLANSPONSOR; free registration may be required

Sixth Circuit Enforces ERISA Exclusion in ESOP Trustee's E&O Insurance Policy

"[T]he trustee argued that the [ERISA] exclusion should not be enforced because the parties' intent was for the [professional liability (errors & omissions)] insurance policy to protect the trustee against business risks; therefore, it would make little sense for an ERISA exclusion to apply in a policy that insured an ESOP trustee against the primary risks the trustee faced in his business as an ESOP trustee. But the Sixth Circuit held that under Ohio state law ... the court was required to construe the coverage according to the plain, unambiguous language of the policy. The ERISA exclusion was clear and unambiguous." [Secretary of Labor v. Potts, Nos. 20-3856, 20-3895 (6th Cir. Nov. 24, 2021)]  MORE >>

Faegre Drinker

Consultant Views on ESG (PDF)

"[The authors] explore consultants' views of ESG with respect to: [1] Definitions of ESG; [2] Plan sponsor and employee demand for ESG investments; [3] Barriers and levers to offering ESG investment options in the [DC] plan, particularly the government's role in driving or dampening adoption of ESG investment options; [4] Typical strategies for implementing ESG in DC plans; [5] How DCIIA can help."  MORE >>

Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association [DCIIA]

The Cost of ESG Investing

"Modifying optimal portfolio weights to achieve an ESG-investing tilt negligibly affects portfolio performance across a broad range of ESG measures and thresholds. This is because those ESG measures do not provide information about future stock performance, either in relation to risk or mispricing, beyond what is provided by other observable firm characteristics."  MORE >>

Laura Anne Lindsey, Seth Pruitt, and Christoph Schiller, Via SSRN

Exceptions to the Pro-Rata Rule for IRA Distributions: Techniques to 'Isolate Basis'

"IRA owners could potentially 'isolate basis' -- reduce an IRA to only after-tax dollars, thereby setting the stage for a tax-fee Roth conversion.... [1] Qualified Health Savings Account Funding Distribution (QHFD).... [2] Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs).... [3] Rollovers from IRAs to company plans."  MORE >>

Slott Report

401(k) Annual Administration: A Checklist for 2022

"[This checklist is] broken into 3 sections ... [1] tasks that must be completed by a specific deadline ... [2] tasks that may need to be completed during the year ... [3] plan year records to keep for documentation purposes."  MORE >>

Employee Fiduciary

[Opinion]

Corporate Pension Funded Ratio Declines in November

"[A] 0.36% investment loss for these plans was only slightly alleviated by a $3 billion liability improvement, leading to an $11 billion drop in the PFI funded status. The discount rate remained flat for the month at 2.72% ... The funded ratio for these plans declined from 98.2% at the end of October to 97.6% as of November 30."  MORE >>

Milliman

[Opinion]

Justices Settle Into Opposing Camps on Duties of Retirement Plan Sponsors

"The reactions of the justices to the case seemed to have less to do with a careful parsing of the statute imposing [the fiduciary duty] and much more to do with the differing predispositions that the justices have about the propensity of class actions to present defendants with an extortionate compulsion to settle even the flimsiest of allegations." [Hughes v. Northwestern Univ., No. 18-2569 (7th Cir. Mar. 25, 2020; oral arg. transcript Dec. 6, 2021)]  MORE >>

SCOTUSblog

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Coverage/Discrimination Issues Where Employer Maintained Two Plans During the Year?

"Client had a solo 401k and terminated it on June 30. On July 1 they hired their first employee and created a brand-new plan, giving immediate entry. Client received a $13k profit sharing allocation on the terminated plan. Do we have a coverage or discrimination issue with the new plan?"

BenefitsLink Message Boards

2% Shareholder of S-Corp: Attribution Required for Determining Eligibility to File 5500-EZ?

"Have an S-corp client. Father owns 100% of company. Daughter only employee covered. Can they file an EZ? Does attribution count for this?"

BenefitsLink Message Boards

401(k) Safe Harbor Match with Discretionary PS -- How Much of PS Is Vested?

"Our client maintains a 401(k) with safe harbor match, 100% up to 4% of compensation. To date, all eligible have deferred, for next year there will be one participant who will not be deferring. If a participant does not defer, obviously they need to get the 3% non-elective if he meets age/service. If the client makes a discretionary PS contribution greater than 3% (minimum is 5% to pass gateway for the new comparability profit sharing portion), is the full 5% contribution considered to ALL be profit sharing subject to vesting schedule, or does 3% need to be at 100% and the remaining 2% subject to the vesting schedule?"

BenefitsLink Message Boards

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OneAmerica Launches Advisor Managed Accounts with Morningstar Investment Management LLC

OneAmerica

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DOL PTE 2020-02 Disclosures and Policies: Common Mistakes

January 6, 2022 WEBCAST

Faegre Drinker

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2021 End of Year Plan Sponsor 'To Do' List: Qualified Retirement Plans

Snell & Wilmer

Which Pocket? A Guide to Paying Retirement Plan Expenses from Plan Assets

Milliman

Justices Seem Divided Over Retirement Plan Fees as Lawsuits Pile Up

Bloomberg Law