"Most of the items on this year's list relate to IRS guidance on optional changes employers might have already adopted pursuant to legislation enacted in recent years."  MORE >>

"[New] Code Section 414(aa) relieves a plan from potential disqualification if the plan fiduciary fails to obtain repayment from any participant or other party on account of any inadvertent benefit overpayment by a plan. ... Code Section 402(c)(12) provides that any inadvertent overpayment under Code Section 414(aa) will be treated as an eligible rollover distribution. If the plan requests repayment of the inadvertent overpayment, then any amount returned to the plan will be treated as an eligible rollover distribution."  MORE >>

"Employers wishing to rely on a newly preapproved document for the second cycle need to adopt one by Dec. 31, 2026. (This deadline doesn't apply to preapproved qualified defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) plans, which have their own remedial amendment cycles.) IRS has also provided guidance on the 'restatement rule' for all preapproved plans in Announcement 2024-38."  MORE >>

"This case importantly lays out what plaintiffs must plead in an excessive fees case to survive a motion to dismiss. That is, an apples to apples comparison of fees spent for similar services in similar plans demonstrating the fees for the Plan in question are excessive." [Singh v. Deloitte LLP, No. 23-1108 (2d Cir. Dec. 10, 2024)]  MORE >>

"To date, the Eighth and Ninth circuits ... generally only require plaintiffs to show that there was a transaction with a party in interest to survive a motion to dismiss.... [T]he Third, Seventh, and Tenth Circuits ... have determined that plaintiffs must plead additional facts, such as an intent to benefit the party in interest, to support their claims.... The outcome of the Cunningham v. Cornell case will undoubtedly offer some clarity on what pleading standards apply when plaintiffs assert a breach of fiduciary duty claim resulting from prohibited transactions." [Cunningham v. Cornell Univ., No. 21-0088 (2d Cir. Nov. 14, 2023; cert. pet. granted Oct. 3, 2024)]  MORE >>

"[The authors] begin with an overview of plan forfeitures and their treatment by various government agencies. [They] then assess the claims and allegations in the complaints, arguments that defendants have made in seeking dismissal of the lawsuits, and initial court rulings on defendants' motions to dismiss. [They] conclude with action items that plan fiduciaries should consider in order to mitigate the risk of a future lawsuit."  MORE >>

"The Senate passed the Social Security Fairness Act [HR 82]  ... [which] would repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). President Joe Biden is expected to sign the bill into law. The WEP and GPO reduce Social Security benefits for workers and spouses, respectively, if they are covered by a pension benefit from a public employer that is exempt from Social Security tax withholding.... [CBO] estimates that repealing the GPO and the WEP would cost $195.7 billion over ten years[.]"  MORE >>

68 pages. "About half of ERISA 403(b) plan participants are in hospital plans, which held 38 percent of ERISA 403(b) plan assets in plan year 2021.... In 2021, more than four-fifths of large ERISA 403(b) plans covering three-quarters of large ERISA 403(b) plan participants had employer contributions.... Among large ERISA 403(b) plans with employer contributions in 2021, 33 percent had automatic employer contributions.... 53 percent had simple matches, and 10 percent had both of these features.... 72 percent of large ERISA 403(b) plans had participant loans outstanding,"  MORE >>

"Ali Khawar will leave [EBSA] when President Trump is inaugurated, the agency confirmed ... Along with [EBSA Assistant Secretary Lisa Gomez], Khawar spearheaded DOL efforts to implement the latest iteration of the investment advice fiduciary rulemaking package, officially called the Retirement Security Rule."  MORE >>

"[PBGC] has approved the application submitted ... by the International Association of United Slate, Tile and Composition Roofers, Damp and Waterproof Workers Roofers Local No. 75 Pension Plan. The plan, based in Dayton, Ohio, covers 275 participants in the construction industry ... is in critical status, [and] will receive approximately $6.8 million in SFA[.]"  MORE >>

"While assuming longer-than-life-expectancy periods of retirement will increase the expected number of years of household expenses (and the present value of such expected expenses) in retirement, it will also increase the number of years that household lifetime income streams of payments like Social Security, pensions and life annuities may be expected to be paid (and the present values of those streams). Therefore, this longer-than-life-expectancy planning strategy will generally favor lifetime income types of assets over non-lifetime income assets, like bonds, when it comes to building a Floor Portfolio for retirement."  MORE >>

"It's unclear how quickly the Social Security Administration (SSA) will be able to recalculate the benefit amounts and begin making payments that reflect the WEP-GPO repeal. Another challenge facing SSA will be how to handle the fact that the legislation is effective for all monthly insurance payments made after December 2023. SSA will have determine how to most efficiently make these retroactive payments."  MORE >>

"The Deloitte court held that the plausibility pleading standard requires participants to offer more than just the purported lower fees of a few random plans to infer fiduciary imprudence. It counters recent decisions that allow excess fee claims based on the conclusory assertion that all large-plan recordkeeping fees and services are commoditized.... A chart of random plans ... is still not a statistically meaningful comparison with sufficient credibility as to what jumbo plans actually pay for recordkeeping fees." [Singh v. Deloitte LLP, No. 23-1108 (2d Cir. Dec. 10, 2024)]  MORE >>

"These regulations propose to eliminate provisions related to registered tax return preparers, classify the use of certain contingent fee arrangements by practitioners as disreputable conduct, establish new standards for appraisals and the disqualification of appraisers, and update certain provisions as appropriate. This document also provides notice of a public hearing on the proposed regulations and withdraws the notice of proposed rulemaking published on July 28, 2009. The regulations would affect registered tax return preparers, enrolled agents (EAs), enrolled retirement plan agents, enrolled actuaries, Annual Filing Season Program (AFSP) participants, attorneys, certified public accountants (CPAs), appraisers, and other practitioners."  MORE >>

"The relief for both storms ends on May 1, 2025. It is important to note that the relief applies not only to ERISA employee benefit plans under the EBSA Notice but also to plan participants, beneficiaries and enrollees affected by the covered disasters, as specified in the DOL/IRS joint notice."  MORE >>

"Lubin, who was covered under his wife's Starbucks health plan, claimed that Starbucks sent him a deficient COBRA notice. The crux of the matter, however, was that while Lubin's wife was bound by an arbitration agreement due to her employment, Lubin himself never agreed to arbitrate disputes with Starbucks.... This case underscores the necessity for employers and organizations to clearly delineate the parties bound by arbitration agreements[.]" [Lubin v. Starbucks Corp., No. 21-11215 (11th Cir. Dec. 16, 2024)]  MORE >>