"[A table provides] a summary of key provisions of the Final Amendment as compared with the Proposed Amendment and the current QPAM Exemption. Although this summary is non-exhaustive, it highlights several important aspects of the Amendment for investment professionals and Benefit Plan fiduciaries"  MORE >>

"[T]here will be numerous parties who are now ERISA investment advice fiduciaries even though they have not historically viewed their roles as fiduciary in nature.... [T]he DOL largely addressed concerns by plan sponsors that their HR and benefits staff easily could become unintended fiduciaries.... [By] providing broad exemptive relief for principal transactions and for all kinds of fees and transactions, the DOL addressed a significant criticism of the vacated fiduciary rule that it favored some types of investments over others."  MORE >>

"Retirement plans in operation in Puerto Rico can impose a statute of limitations for the filing of ERISA claims for benefits that is substantially shorter than the four-year period that would apply absent such a plan-imposed period. However, to be valid and enforceable the plan-imposed period must be: [1] Reasonable, [2] Incorporated within the official plan documents, and [3] Disclosed in the notification of benefit determination that the claims administrator issues to the claimant as part of the internal review process under ERISA Section 503."  MORE >>

"[T]he Second Circuit Court of Appeals joined the Third, Seventh, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals in holding that an arbitration provision which operates as a prospective waiver of substantive, plan-wide remedies under ERISA is unenforceable." [Cedeno v. Sasson, No. 21-2891 (2d Cir. May 1, 2024)]  MORE >>

"[P]laintiffs claim that prior to 2018, two CITGO pension plans utilized inaccurate mortality tables (from the 1970s) to determine the value of JSAs, resulting in married retirees consistently receiving less than the actuarial equivalent of a single-life annuity as required under ERISA. The lawsuit seeks to recover the underpayments, and to reform the CITGO Plans to fully comply with protections afforded by ERISA to pension plan participants and their beneficiaries." [Urlaub v. Citgo Petroleum Corp., No. 21-4133 (N.D. Ill. May 6, 2024)]  MORE >>

"[An] employee of a J.P. Morgan client whose retirement account J.P. Morgan administered, claims that his and other victims' sensitive information was targeted, compromised and unlawfully accessed due to the data breach that occurred in August of 2021.... [The plaintiff] also claims that cyber thieves have already engaged in identity theft and fraud and can in the future commit a variety of crimes, including opening new financial accounts and taking out loans in victims' names, filing fraudulent tax returns and giving false information to police during an arrest." [Valentine v. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., No. 24-3438 (S.D.N.Y. complaint filed May 3, 2024)]  MORE >>

"While 47% of Americans say they think about retirement as a slow transition away from full-time work, only 38% now say they think about it as a distinct date in the future to stop working and start drawing down on retirement assets. At the same time, 15% say they don't see themselves ever slowing down or retiring."  MORE >>

"At the end of 2023, the OASDI program was providing benefit payments to about 67 million people ... Social Security's total cost is projected to be higher than its total income in 2024 and all later years.... Under the Trustees' intermediate assumptions ... the level of the hypothetical combined trust fund reserves declines until reserves become depleted in 2035, one year later than projected in last year's report."  MORE >>

"Pension finances were mixed during April, as higher interest rates largely offset the impact of lower stock markets ... Plan A improved less than 1% last month, ending April up more than 6% this year, while Plan B slipped a fraction of 1% in April but remains up more than 1% through the first four months of 2024."  MORE >>

"The Chamber supports automatic portability as a way to increase retirement savings. However, the Chamber is concerned that certain provisions in the Proposed Regulation would discourage automatic portability by making it more difficult for an automatic portability provider to operate and for a plan sponsor to participate in such a program.... [The Chamber is] concerned that number of provisions in the Proposed Regulation are not within the scope of the statute and how DOL may try to apply these provisions to other individual and class PTEs in the future."  MORE >>

"[IRS announced] tax relief for individuals and businesses in Oklahoma that were affected by severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes, and flooding that began on April 25, 2024. These taxpayers now have until September 3, 2024, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments.... [I]ndividuals and households that reside or have a business in Carter, Hughes, Love, and Murray counties qualify for tax relief."  MORE >>

"The Final Rule goes beyond prohibiting straightforward noncompete clauses. It also prohibits functional noncompetes, which are arrangements that serve to restrict, 'penalize,' or 'function to prevent' a worker from working after their current employment terminates. In the preamble to the Final Rule, the FTC indicates that inclusion of the term 'penalize' is meant to prohibit clauses that 'require a worker to pay a penalty for seeking or accepting other work or starting a business after their employment ends.' "  MORE >>

"[E]mployers should take the following steps: [1] Determine which existing non-competes are with Senior Executives.... [2] With regard to Senior Executives that are not currently subject to non-competes, consider strategies for entering into non-competes with these individuals, if otherwise permissible under state or local law, before the Final Rule becomes effective. [3] Tax Exempt Entities should evaluate whether they fall within the FTC's jurisdiction, in which case the non-compete ban requirements will apply to them."  MORE >>

"There are a myriad of ... state and local laws that a company must consider when it allows an employee to transfer to a state in which the company has not previously had a presence.... [S]tates have enacted [1] corporate laws requiring entities doing business in that state to register with the Secretary of State, [2] employment laws requiring mandatory leave, [3] state disability insurance programs, ... and [4] state-mandated retirement benefits."  MORE >>

"The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund will be able to pay 100 percent of total scheduled benefits until 2033, unchanged from last year's report. At that time, the fund's reserves will become depleted and continuing program income will be sufficient to pay 79 percent of total scheduled benefits.... The Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund will be able to pay 100 percent of total scheduled benefits until 2036, 5 years later than reported last year. At that point, that fund's reserves will become depleted and continuing program income will be sufficient to pay 89 percent of total scheduled benefits."  MORE >>

"For private companies, ESPPs may pose unique challenges under securities laws. Although Rule 701 of the Securities Act of 1933 provides a registration exemption for compensation plans of private or non-reporting companies, blue sky laws vary among states regarding the requirements that a private company must meet in order to offer its securities to an employee."  MORE >>

"A general legal advice memorandum (GLAM) published by the IRS in December 2022, AM 2022-007, threatens to expand application of section 409A to deferred compensation payments for businesses engaged in commerce that provides services to a wide array of unrelated clients or customers. Before the GLAM, those businesses were believed to be exempt from section 409A."  MORE >>