"The Social Security Administration (SSA) is charged with determining the benefits and any required changes. Employers of non-covered employees should not have to provide any additional information or data. Note that if an employer has a non-covered group of employees, the WEP/GPO offsets might have served as a barrier to changing that group to become a covered group. That consideration is no longer an issue."  MORE >>

"Prior to SECURE 2.0, AFNs were generally required to contain information about the plan's funded status, investment policies, regulatory filings, participant demographics, and other key information to ensure transparency and compliance. Though the goal of keeping relevant parties informed through AFNs remains the same, some of the requirements for the specific information to be included have changed [a shown in a chart]."  MORE >>

"[C]ompliance with the mandate is on hold until 2026 after IRS announced a two-year administrative implementation period. The proposal largely incorporates -- and expands upon -- IRS's interim guidance on the Roth mandate in Notice 2023-62. Plans may rely on the proposal for tax years before final regulations are effective. Comments are due by March 14."  MORE >>

"Plaintiffs had accused FedEx and its pension plan fiduciaries of using outdated mortality tables to calculate benefits for married retirees, alleging that this practice violated ERISA.... 'The district court here correctly rejected appellants' invitation to fashion unwritten, judge-made standards for actuarial assumptions where the Congress elected not to specify any,' the trade groups wrote[.]" [Watt v. FedEx, No. 23-2593 (W.D. Tenn. Sep. 18, 2024; on appeal to 6th Cir. No. 24-5945; amicus brief Feb. 26, 2025)]  MORE >>

"To date, we count twenty forfeiture lawsuits filed in a variety of jurisdictions (although predominantly in Federal Courts in California). Five decisions on Motions to Dismiss have been issued so far -- two favoring plaintiffs and three favoring defendants. Two of the three favoring defendants ... however, were without prejudice to plaintiffs filing amended complaints.... [A recent complaint filed against Knight Smith alleges] that the plan documents required forfeitures to be used to pay plan expenses first before they could be used to reduce employer contributions."  MORE >>

"OTC stock compensation is increasingly at issue in retirement plans because of both a large retiring generation and the prevalence of equity awards at start-ups. Criminal enforcement of insider trading, market manipulation, and other securities fraud remains high. Both the DOJ and the DOL are encouraging voluntary self-disclosure and self-correction of non-compliance in common areas of fiduciary risk, such as transactions involving parties in interest, illiquid assets, and potentially improper valuations. Plaintiffs' lawyers are increasingly targeting OTC issuers/employers and their retirement plans to contest potential liquidity, valuation, or transfer problems involving OTC stocks."  MORE >>

"[Early retirement incentive programs (ERIPs)] have been most successful in recent years -- across all industries -- when organizations leverage targeted program designs.... [K]ey factors for colleges and universities to consider when implementing an ERIP: ... [1] Run a financial analysis ... [2] Keep the design simple ... [3] Leverage technology ... [4] Communicate with transparency."  MORE >>

"Market swings at the end of 2024 and start of 2025 caused the Milliman 100 PPFI funded ratio to dip from 81.7% as of November 30 to 80.0% as of December 31 before rising back up to 81.1% as of January 31. The plans experienced estimated aggregate returns of -1.7% in December.... Aggregate market gains of 1.9% in January recouped some losses and pushed plan assets back up to $5.281 trillion as of January 31."  MORE >>

"The Social Security Administration (SSA) will soon implement agency-wide organizational restructuring that will include significant workforce reductions. Through these massive reorganizations, offices that perform functions not mandated by statute may be prioritized for reduction-in-force actions that could include abolishment of organizations and positions, directed reassignments, and reductions in staffing. The agency may reassign employees from non-mission critical positions to mission critical direct service positions (e.g., field offices, teleservice centers, processing centers). Reassignments may be involuntary and may require retraining for new workloads."  MORE >>

"[T]he court confirmed that the goal of ERISA fiduciary law is to ensure that plan participants receive their promised benefits. This formula should be applied to dismiss any forfeiture liability claim in which the plan fiduciaries faithfully followed the terms of plan documents and the long-settled fiduciary practice to offset forfeitures against further contributions." [Hutchins v. HP Inc., No. 23-5875 (N.D. Calif. Feb. 5, 2025)]  MORE >>

"With respect to administrative fees (if not the entire area of litigation targeting sponsor fiduciaries), what is really missing is clarity about what the law requires -- even after 20 years of litigation. If the fiduciary is expected to, e.g., do a recordkeeping RFP every three years, then whatever (some would view excessive) cost that entails can be taken out of participant accounts."  MORE >>