"Plan sponsors and fiduciaries should clearly communicate plan rules and update their documents and procedures to ensure that required minimum distributions are timely taken, especially since the rules have changed in recent years."  MORE >>

"Plaintiffs must plead a 'sound basis for comparison -- a meaningful benchmark' -- to sustain their claims of imprudent investment and excessive fee against a 401(k) plan, the [court] held, dismissing a class action lawsuit for breached of fiduciary duties under ERISA.... The U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Sixth and Seventh Circuits reached similar conclusions in dismissing cases before them." [Matousek v. MidAmerican Energy Co., No. 21-2749 (8th Cir. Oct. 12, 2022)]  MORE >>

"First, the 'facts' about the objective prudence of the decision to use the BlackRock TDFs did not, as a practical matter, require discovery ... Why could this case, then, not have been disposed of on a motion to dismiss? Second, on future motions to dismiss, or for summary judgment, in 401(k) prudence litigation (e.g., in the more recent BlackRock TDF cases), arguing objective prudence looks like a promising line of attack." [Pizarro v. The Home Depot Inc., No. 18-1566 (N.D. Ga. Sep. 30, 2022)]  MORE >>

"The purpose of this post is to remind fiduciaries that 404(c) Protection is available only if certain requirements are continually met. It also provides a high-level summary of the key requirements and recommends that fiduciaries periodically review their plan operations to ensure compliance. No fiduciary wants to discover that 404(c) Protection is unavailable after an investment loss has occurred."  MORE >>

"Some retirement plan documents automatically revoke spousal beneficiary designation upon divorce. If this is not specified in the plan document, however, former spouses will still be the designated beneficiary, much to the surprise of any surviving family members.... Reviewing the order of beneficiaries listed in the plan document is vital to ensure funds are distributed timely while in accordance with the participant's intentions. Having inaccurate or outdated forms on file leads to confusion and extra time spent working to allocate the deceased participant's account."  MORE >>

"While more participants are looking for a consistent source of income in retirement, they also want the flexibility to change their payments when needed."  MORE >>

"Former and current portfolio managers of [T. Rowe Price] target date solutions marked the 20‑year anniversary of T. Rowe Price target date investing with a discussion of the lessons they've learned and shared insights on the target date investing landscape and where they think it is headed."  MORE >>

"The timing for the ESOP transaction can be largely managed and expedited by the client. There are several things that the client should and must do to move the transaction and its advisors forward and manage costs. The faster the company comes to grips with these and other alternatives the faster the transaction can close."  MORE >>

"Coupled with a slight decrease in 2023 Medicare premiums, [the 8.7% COLA] may seem like great news to help [retirees] cope with inflation. For some retirees, however, it won't be quite enough to offset higher expenses, forcing some to withdraw more from their retirement accounts. The increase could also push some retirees into a higher tax bracket."  MORE >>