53 pages; Mar. 10, 2025. "What's New: Distributions to victims of domestic abuse.... Distributions for emergency personal expenses.... Transfers and rollovers of assets and the substantially equal payment method.... Reminders: [1] The direct payment requirement for certain distributions for payment of health or long-term care insurance repealed.... [2] Form 8915-F replaces Form 8915-E. "  MORE >>

Rev. Mar. 10, 2025. "What's New: New code Y for box 7.... Reminders: Automatic rollover amount.... Information Reporting Intake System (IRIS).... Online fillable forms." [Also available: 2025 IRS Form 5498 and Draft 2025 IRS Form 1099-R]  MORE >>

"This notice provides guidance on the corporate bond monthly yield curve, the corresponding spot segment rates ... and the 24-month average segment rates ... [as well as] the interest rate on 30-year Treasury securities ... as in effect for plan years beginning before 2008 and the 30-year Treasury weighted average rate[.]"  MORE >>

"Defined benefit (DB) plan sponsors have until March 31, 2025, to adopt a preapproved plan document reflecting items on the 2020 Cumulative List. DB plan sponsors that adopt a preapproved document by this deadline can rely on the provider's opinion letter to show their plan language satisfied Internal Revenue Code (IRC) qualification requirements during the third remedial amendment cycle. A list of preapproved plan documents is available on IRS's website."  MORE >>

"The employer can choose either, or both, of two safe harbor contribution options. The contribution must apply to all eligible non-HCEs and may be allocated to HCEs as well, but that is not required.... The Employer can decide, on an annual basis, which safe harbor to use.... The safe harbor adds an element of certainty ... If already contributing a top-heavy minimum, the only additional cost is fully vesting a contribution of 3% for all NHCEs."  MORE >>

"[T]he 2022 WORK Act requires the DOL to issue valuation regulations, so while the fate of those withdrawn rules is uncertain, they provide insight into the DOL's perspective ... Perhaps the withdrawn rule's largest departure from current practice is that a good process would not be sufficient if the actual price paid eventually proves to be wrong. Fiduciaries would not know if they had met the rule's requirements for several years after the transaction. "  MORE >>

"The Office of the Chief Actuary estimates this change will equal program savings of about $7 billion over the next decade. However, this is a sharp increase from the 10% limit put in place in early 2024 ... [In a February report,] the Office of Inspector General (OIG) said overpayments in the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program added up to roughly $13.5 billion in the four years from 2020 until 2023."  MORE >>

"The suit alleges that the Swiss Re Defendants 'failed to adhere to ERISA's basic principles, using flawed methodologies that led to a poor outcome; they chose expensive, underperforming investment options instead of lower-cost and better alternatives, and by charging the Plaintiffs grossly excessive recordkeeping fees.' " [Rudasill v. Swiss Re American Holding Corp., No. 25-1403 (S.D.N.Y. complaint filed Feb. 19, 2025)]  MORE >>

"[T]echnology's allure can seduce fiduciaries into a false sense of security, where speed overshadows scrutiny.... [E]fficiency must be paired with vigilance -- checking, double-checking, and then checking again -- to keep the DOL's audit hounds at bay. What happens, though, when the pursuit of swiftness collides with the bedrock of fiduciary duty?"  MORE >>

"The overall health of multiemployer defined contribution (DC) retirement plans improved from 2020 to 2021. The average account balance for a participant in a median multiemployer DC plan increased from $46,100 at the end of 2019 to $52,800 at the end of 2021 ... The report examined Form 5500 data submitted by 1,049 multiemployer DC retirement plans with ... total assets of approximately $227 billion and covered approximately 4.6 million participants and their beneficiaries."  MORE >>

"72% of retirees feel retirement is going as planned ... Two-thirds of Americans in their planning years express confidence about their retirement prospects -- however, this is down 7 percentage points from last year."  MORE >>

"Financial advisors who use Monte Carlo simulations to develop retirement income plans must be careful with the language they use to present such plans, as the same financial plan can feel very different to clients based on its framing.... [A]dvisors should not present the simulation results to their clients without providing substantial contextualization about what the commensurate probabilities of success and failure really represent."  MORE >>

"Chavez-DeRemer is known for her strong support of employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) and her sponsorship of the PRO Act, which she later retracted. The PRO Act would have made it harder to classify workers as contractors, overturn state 'right-to-work' laws, and strengthen penalties for labor law violations."  MORE >>

"The proposed regulations generally follow the existing regulations as to how: [1] Corporations in parent/subsidiary and brother/sister configurations apply the rules to determine who are covered employees; [2] Compensation is apportioned among corporations in which employees perform services for more than one entity to determine who are covered employees, including rules for controlled foreign corporations; [3] The deduction limit is calculated for acquired and divested corporations."  MORE >>

"[A recent Eighth Circuit decision] reinforces the extent to which top hat plans are a unique combination of contract law and ERISA, and illustrates the extent to which doctrines of contractual interpretation control the application of top hat plans, to a more significant extent than is typically the case with ERISA plans." [Hankins v. Crane Automotive Holdings LLC, No. 24-1555 (8th Cir. Feb. 28, 2025)]  MORE >>