Rev. Nov. 2023. "You should not complete Form 5434 until you have satisfied the qualifying experience in section 901.12(b), the basic actuarial knowledge requirement in section 901.12(c), and the pension actuarial knowledge requirement in section 901.12(d)." [Also see Form 5434-A, Application for Renewal of Enrollment, rev. Nov. 2023.]  MORE >>

"Generally, distributions from retirement plans (IRAs, qualified plans, section 403(b) plans, and governmental section 457(b) plans), insurance contracts, etc., are reported to recipients on Form 1099-R."  MORE >>

"Sponsor fiduciaries will be required to monitor an advice fiduciary's compliance with [PTE 2020-02]; failure to do so ... may result in a fiduciary breach by plan/sponsor fiduciaries.... [T]he exact extent of the sponsor's duty-to-monitor is unclear. In the abstract it means: the plan/sponsor fiduciary must be reasonably satisfied that adviser fiduciaries that it has retained (e.g., call center operators) are complying with, e.g., the impartial conduct standards and rollover disclosures."  MORE >>

"The proposal would permit broker/dealers to make projections on investments or investment strategies and use those in communicating with institutional investors with at least $25 million in assets under management. Broker/dealers would be permitted to do the same for qualified purchasers with at least $5 million in investments for private placements only."  MORE >>

"The fundamental flaw in the court's reasoning is that the court focuses on fees 'received' by Fidelity rather than on fees 'paid' by the Plan.... Plan fiduciaries will need to put in place a prudent process to identify and consider indirect compensation received by a service provider from sources other than the plan, in order to determine that the service provider is receiving no more than 'reasonable compensation'." [Bugielski v. AT&T Servs., Inc., No. 21-56196 (9th Cir. Nov. 8, 23)]  MORE >>

"It appears that EBSA designed the comment period to prevent fulsome interaction with the community that would be charged with implementing its disastrous proposal. EBSA also stated in its response to the trade association letter that it 'believes that its current proposal reflects significant input it has received from public engagement with this project since 2010. This is a strong indication that the outcome is predetermined in violation of the APA."  MORE >>

"Returns in the first retirement decade matter more than in the first year alone ... An initial 10-year period with bad returns can dig a deep hole ... A good opening sequence should result in excess returns ... even if there's a crash after 30 years."  MORE >>

"A $31 recordkeeping per-participant fee is well below the average and median for $1B+ asset plans. But plaintiff law firms continue to file fiduciary malpractice claims with intentionally false comparators ... The plan sponsor community must fight back against frivolous excess fee lawsuits by publishing studies of what large plans actually pay for recordkeeping services and explaining how these services are differentiated by quality and scope." [Winkelman v. Whole Foods Market, Inc., No. 23-1352 (W.D. Tex. complaint filed Nov. 6, 2023)]  MORE >>

"[ThinkAdvisor] asked two professors and authors of ALM’s Tax Facts with opposing political viewpoints to share their opinions about whether the DOL’s newly proposed fiduciary rule changes would have a negative impact for retirement investors."  MORE >>

"[T]he authors discuss some of the Biden administration's recently issued cybersecurity rules and proposals and provide additional details about the Office of the National Cyber Director's [August 2023] request for information seeking comment on how to harmonize cybersecurity regulations.... The continued onslaught of new cybersecurity proposals and expectations create complex compliance burdens on organizations across a range of sectors, many of whom are already subject to various other cyber incident reporting and regulatory obligations."  MORE >>

"Adjustment mechanisms can have significant benefits in ensuring greater alignment between risk and individual reward and in reinforcing expected standards of performance or conduct. But in many countries their use, whether in the form of clawback or malus/cause provisions, is legally regulated. ... [T]here is a broad spectrum of legal impacts, from the use of such provisions being prohibited in some countries, to being mandatory for companies operating under certain regulatory frameworks in others."  MORE >>