44 pages; Jul. 5, 2024. "What's New: [1] Compensation ... Elective deferral ... Defined contribution ... Defined benefit ... SIMPLE plan salary reduction contribution ... [and] Catch-up contribution limits for 2023 and 2024 ... [2] Required minimum distributions (RMDs).... [3] Plans established after end of taxable year.... [4] Increased small employer pension plan startup cost credit.... [5] Employer contributions credit.... [6] Small employer military spouse participation credit.... [7] Designated Roth nonelective contributions and designated Roth matching contributions."  MORE >>

"BlackRock isn't a defendant in this case nor is it a defendant in 10 other lawsuits against various sponsors making the same or similar allegations by the same law firm ... Among the lawsuits where judges have acted on sponsors' use of the BlackRock Lifepath Index Retirement Funds, only one -- against Genworth Financial Inc. -- has survived a motion to dismiss." [Kistler v. Stanley Black & Decker Inc., No. 22-0966 (D. Conn. Jul. 3, 2024)]  MORE >>

"Sponsors will want to consider how to keep an appropriate distance between plan fiduciary decision making and the employer's own ESG initiatives. This can be problematic -- typically plan committee members will also be regular company officials, sometimes with, in their company capacity, explicit ESG goals to meet." [Spence v. Am. Airlines, Inc., No. 23-0552 (N.D. Tex. Jun. 20, 2024)]  MORE >>

"The plaintiffs in each lawsuit, former plan participants whose benefits were transferred to Athene, generally allege that the plan fiduciaries could not possibly have complied with applicable strict fiduciary standards given that Athene, with its private-equity ownership and risky investments such as offshore captive reinsurance, was selected.... They make this allegation even though in two of the cases (AT&T and Alcoa) an independent fiduciary was engaged by the Company to select the insurer."  MORE >>

"[Ms. Gomez] noted retirement plans may have been using voice recognition to verify that they're speaking with the right participant, service provider, bank, or custodian. However, it can no longer be used as a sole source of verification, she warned, noting that it now takes as little as six seconds to replicate a voice using AI."  MORE >>

"Experts at an ERISA Advisory Council hearing [on July 8] recommended that annuities should be part of a defined contribution plan's default investments as a hedge against longevity risk."  MORE >>

"The variety of metrics that could be prioritized by a corporate plan could vary widely depending upon investment policy and situation. These could span across balance sheet metrics, income statement metrics, contributions, and other variables."  MORE >>

"Longevity risk is an important consideration for participants in TDFs and the plan sponsors that oversee the glidepaths of such funds. A common metric for longevity risk is the probability that participants will spend their entire nest egg if they live to different ages. This concept can be extended to both the amount a retiree is able to spend in retirement over a given horizon, such as 30 years, and their ending asset balance."  MORE >>

"This post provides a primer on mutual funds as a 403(b) plan investment including advantages and disadvantages, types of mutual funds, mutual fund fees and expenses, resource materials, [and] fund selection criteria ... It also describes mutual fund prospectuses and concludes with a summary of research about fund performance, three 'need to know' facts, and six take-away action steps."  MORE >>

"This analysis examines the disability incidence of public retirement systems based on three factors: occupational class, disability eligibility criteria, and disability plan design. Data are distinguished by employee type whenever possible, contingent on the scope of coverage and reporting framework in use among systems and plans."  MORE >>

"If Treasury and IRS do not provide this confirmation, employers will be forced to either pay a third-party service provider to file the Form 5330 or file on paper, while asserting one of the uncertain regulatory exceptions discussed [in this letter]. These options involve unreasonable and unnecessary costs, uncertainty, and risk."  MORE >>

"The ruling will likely result in increased judicial scrutiny over regulatory decisions, directly affecting cybersecurity rules and enforcement actions by agencies ... Business compliance will likely need to evolve to account for uneven application of cybersecurity laws across jurisdictions.... Compliance efforts may need to adapt to more frequent modification of security regulations as lawsuits work through the court system." [Loper Bright Enterprises, Inc. v. Raimondo, Sec. of Comm., No. 22-451 (S. Ct. Jun. 28, 2024)]  MORE >>

"In order to rule in favor of the plaintiffs opposing the final rule, the Court had to make four critical findings ... In finding for plaintiffs on all four of these elements, the Court demonstrated, in no uncertain terms, that it intends to find the FTC's rule unenforceable as a whole and against any party (not just the parties to the lawsuit) when it reaches its final decision on or before August 30." [Ryan LLC v. Federal Trade Commission (no. 24-0986 (N.D. Tex. Jul. 3, 2024)]  MORE >>

"This preliminary decision indicates that the court is likely to issue a permanent injunction when it decides the case on the merits in August. Plaintiffs will likely ask for the decision to have nation-wide effect. Given the Supreme Court's recent decision ... overturning Chevron's deference to administrative agencies, this could be the end of the FTC Rule." [Ryan LLC v. Federal Trade Commission (no. 24-0986 (N.D. Tex. Jul. 3, 2024)]  MORE >>