"The Amendment provides key changes and guidance in the following areas: [1] notification to DOL of reliance on the QPAM Exemption; [2] QPAM ineligibility; [3] QPAM conduct during a transition period; [4] QPAM discretion and independence; [5] exemptive relief solely for investment purposes; [6] increase of assets under management and capitalization thresholds; and [7] recordkeeping."  MORE >>

"The changes make reliance on the QPAM Exemption more burdensome and challenging and may result, over time, in fewer choices for ERISA and IRA plan investors, their managers and their counterparties.2 The changes go into effect on Monday, June 17, 2024.... Changes will be particularly important to debt, real estate, alternatives and private strategies, where the QPAM exemption is often the favored exemption."  MORE >>

"The Final Amendment imposes a variety of new requirements with potential impacts on both investment managers currently relying on (or those considering relying on) the QPAM Exemption and financial firms ... [F]or most market participants -- whether most large well-established investment managers managing Plan assets or financial counterparties and service providers with whom they trade -- Plan related business should not be substantially impacted."  MORE >>

"[IRS] clarified the following three important points in Notice 2023-62: [1] Catch-up contributions will continue to be permissible after 2023; [2] Catch-up contributions can continue to be pre-tax contribution for 2024 and 2025; and [3] Pending guidance will clarify a number of open issues that will facilitate compliance with the SECURE 2.0 change."  MORE >>

"The proposed changes to PTE 2020-02 are limited, but at least two of them should be concerning to the broker-dealers, investment advisory firms, banks, and insurance companies who will need to rely on the PTE. The first of those is the requirement to file the Form 5330 for failures that are not corrected promptly.... The changes to the eligibility provisions are concerning to many financial institutions."  MORE >>

"The Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Plan (Central States) has entered into a civil settlement agreement pursuant to which it has agreed to repay more than $126.5 million in excess funds that it received from the [PBGC] in connection with the PBGC's Special Financial Assistance Program.... The resolution obtained in this matter was the result of a coordinated effort between the Justice Department's Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch, PBGC-OIG and PBGC Office of General Counsel, along with the [DOL] and Department of Treasury."  MORE >>

"Judge Nelson S. Roman ... [wrote that] the IBM Personal Pension Plan 'statute of limitations is enforceable' ... The lawsuit had argued IBM and the plan administrator committee violated provisions of ERISA when using outdated mortality assumptions when calculating joint and survivor benefits for participants." [Knight v. International Business Machines Corp., No. 22-4592 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 4, 2024)]  MORE >>

104 pages. "Average account balances grew by 14%, which helped to regain some losses experienced in 2022.... Plan adoption of Roth contributions reached an all-time high of 93% in 2023, and 14% of participants made Roth contributions.... The average deferral rate remained steady in 2023 and surpassed the national average of 7.8%.... More participants had an outstanding loan balance in 2023. Although loan rates increased, loan defaults declined for the third year in a row."  MORE >>

"One key area of refining the proposal is 'the basic issue of what is an investment recommendation and when you cross the line between talking about investments and actually recommending something to someone,' [EBSA head Lisa Gomez] said. 'That is certainly something you will see in the final rule -- more discussion of that.' "  MORE >>

"This post is about an investment product that people purchase to make the world a better place. It will discuss what the letters ESG stand for, advantages and disadvantages of ESG investing, and the availability of ESG mutual funds in 403(b) plans. It also summarizes research about investors' ESG investing knowledge and attitudes and concludes with three 'need to know' facts and six take-away action steps."  MORE >>

"Between 2000 and 2020, two dominant trends in core benefits emerged: Active healthcare costs more than tripled, well surpassing pay increases, driving up total benefit values over the past 20 years. Retirement programs, including DB pensions and retiree medical plans, were significantly scaled back, replaced by less generous account-based programs."  MORE >>

"[C]ompanies may need to revisit any changes to their perk reporting made during the height of the pandemic.... Companies should be proactive and cooperative in responding to potential or actual misconduct relating to perk disclosure.... While certain disclosure violations may have been difficult to detect in the past, the SEC now has risk-based data analytics tools at its disposal and has utilized such tools to discover executive compensation disclosure violations, including those related to perks.["  MORE >>