"Parts of 2020 Required Amendments List still due in 2022... [1] Difficulty-of-care payments under the SECURE Act.... [2] CARES Act expansion of CSEC plans.... [3] Periodic updates not specifically mentioned on RA List."  MORE >>

"401(k) plans hold a whopping $7.7 trillion in retirement savings. But cash-outs of small accounts pull billions from the system each year and can harm investors' chances of a secure retirement, research shows. A trio of the industry's largest 401(k) administrators -- Fidelity Investments, Vanguard Group and Alight Solutions -- have teamed up to change that."  MORE >>

"[C]oordination between departments such as IT, risk, legal, and cybersecurity is essential to prevent information from being siloed off between them.... [F]raudsters will often try to manipulate staff into offering pieces of information that the fraudster lacks, such as by suggesting an answer or appearing sympathetic or forgetful in order to solicit missing pieces of identifying information."  MORE >>

"Auto-portability can prove especially useful in industries with lower wages and high employee turnover, which may include retail, transportation, hospitality, and restaurants, because this can often lead to numerous account balances of $5,000 or less being involuntarily rolled to default IRAs. Note that SECURE 2.0 proposals could increase the involuntary cash-out threshold to $7,000, which could expand the potential market for auto-portability solutions."  MORE >>

"[T]he Guaranteed Income Direct program aims to provide a straightforward income option in the form of an immediate income annuity. The annuities come with institutional pricing and are offered by a significant variety of insurers."  MORE >>

"[T]he environment has come full circle in such a way that unfreezing DB plans and using their surplus funding now makes sense in many cases.... DB plans can serve as a way for employers to reduce cash outlays, manage their workforces, and differentiate their companies in a tight labor market. Here are specific case studies where plan sponsors worked with Milliman consultants to reopen their DB plans in ways that were advantageous to their business."  MORE >>

"[D]ue to rising interest rates, beneficial regulatory pension relief, COVID induced changes in our work environment and the hiring challenges many employers face -- the defined benefit plan can and will become, a game changer for many employers."  MORE >>

"Overall, more than half retired earlier than expected.... Similar to 2020, 7 in 10 said Social Security is a major source of their income.... Approximately half of retirees said they spend less than $2,000 each month, while 1 in 3 spend between $2,000 and $3,999 each month.... On average, retirees reported that nearly a third of their monthly income goes towards housing expenses. The second largest reported expenditure was food."  MORE >>

"The WTW Pension Index increased slightly in September 2022, recovering the losses incurred last month and reverting back to July's level. This month's change was due to a decrease in liabilities, almost completely offset by negative investment returns. The end-of-September index level of 97.0 reflects an increase of 0.1% for the month."  MORE >>

"Many people think of state and local employees as having gold-plated benefits, but there is a catch. First, you generally must put in long service with a single employer to collect full value. Moving around or taking time off means you lose coverage. Second, many public employees, especially newer and lower-paid ones, are excluded from the most generous plans.... The fight in 2023 may be more between younger and older public employees than between united public employees and taxpayers."  MORE >>

"The Mental Health Matters Act [HR 7780], passed in the US House of Representatives on September 29, [1] significantly expands the [DOL's] authority to enforce or file civil litigation with respect to mental health parity violations and [2] eliminates discretionary clauses, potentially dismantling the administrative process of [ERISA]."  MORE >>

"In an enforcement action involving an administrative subpoena seeking documents from a service provider for employer-sponsored health and retirement plans, the Seventh Circuit held that the [DOL's] investigatory authority under [ERISA] is not limited to ERISA plan fiduciaries. The Seventh Circuit also concluded that the subpoena was not too indefinite or unduly burdensome." [Walsh v. Alight Solutions LLC, No. 21-3290 (7th Cir. Aug. 12, 2022)]  MORE >>