"If you reach age 73 in 2024: [1] Your first RMD is due by April 1, 2025, based on your account balance on December 31, 2023, and [2] Your second RMD is due by December 31, 2025, based on your account balance on December 31, 2024. For defined contribution plan participants or IRA owners who die after December 31, 2019 ... the entire balance of the deceased participant's account must be distributed within ten years. There's an exception for a surviving spouse, a child who has not reached the age of majority, a disabled or chronically ill person, or a person not more than ten years younger than the employee or IRA account owner." [Updated Dec. 10, 2024]  MORE >>

"This chart highlights some of the basic RMD rules as applied to IRAs and defined contribution plans (e.g., 401(k), profit-sharing, and 403(b) plans)." [Updated Dec. 10, 2024]  MORE >>

"[As] Congress and the [IRS] (IRS) continue to change the substantiation requirements for these distribution options, plan sponsors are left trying to balance the desire to prevent excess leakage from a plan against wanting to avoid creating unnecessary burdens to participants experiencing a financial crisis. This article will review the current requirements for hardship distributions and suggest guidelines for a hardship distribution policy."  MORE >>

"The retirees argue that the QJSA benefits were based on outdated mortality assumptions, which violated ERISA's actuarial equivalence requirement and resulted in lower benefit payments than the plaintiffs otherwise would have received.... The DOL's stance includes the observation that the district court considered it 'irrelevant' that the Treasury regulation on QJSA benefits -- which expressly requires the use of reasonable assumptions for QJSA conversions -- explaining that the regulation is 'not enforceable under ERISA.' " [Drummond v. Southern Company Services, Inc., No. 22-0174 (N.D. Ga. Jul. 30, 2024; on appeal to 11th Cir. No. 24-12773, DOL amicus brief filed Dec. 4, 2024)]  MORE >>

18 pages. "When asked about the top ways they could improve employees' retirements, most employers first went with the familiar -- focusing on accumulation by increasing their match. A close second demonstrates the evolution in their thinking: Offering income guaranteed for life.... 85% of plan sponsors say employees need more guaranteed income than Social Security will provide.... 63% of plan sponsors say they're unable to articulate the value and importance of annuities."  MORE >>

"[W]hile 'perfect' [capital market assumptions (CMAs)] may offer accurate predictions about general market conditions, they will still fall short of telling a client how much they can spend. Market fluctuations, sequence of returns, and personal spending behaviors all create unpredictable variations that CMAs cannot fully capture. However, by proactively monitoring and adjusting portfolio spending, advisors and clients can take advantage of the high points, guard against the lows, and, overall, ensure greater peace of mind!"  MORE >>

"Since their enactment in 1983, the WEP and GPO have infuriated state and local employees, who feel they are unfairly being denied benefits. In fact, these provisions are a legitimate -- if imperfect -- effort to solve an equity issue that arises because 25-30 percent of state and local workers are not covered by Social Security."  MORE >>

"The incoming Trump administration will likely pull back from defending Biden-era rules from court challenges, including the Federal Trade Commission's recent ban of noncompetes, the DOL's updated definition of an investment advice fiduciary under ERISA and a DOL rule permitting ERISA fiduciaries to consider ESG issues when making investment decisions. Changes in regulation at the federal level could lead to an increase in legislative and judicial activity at the state level ... The new administration, like Trump's previous administration, will likely target the [ACA] and other healthcare-related policies, leading to significant changes ahead in healthcare coverage requirements."  MORE >>

"The longer-term outlook for the tax laws and the stock market is a key factor at year-end 2024 for employee stock options, restricted stock units (RSUs), employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs), and related holdings of company shares."  MORE >>