10 pages. "This article provides a detailed discussion of the final regulations ... regarding the catch-up contributions for people ages 60-63 and those catch-up provisions related to Roth amounts.... While the Age 60-63 increased catch-up limit appears relatively easy to navigate, it is clear that Congress's activities in relation to Roth catch-up contributions has created quite the hornet's nest of issues."  MORE >>

"Successor beneficiaries (the beneficiary of a beneficiary) do NOT get to use any of their own personal information or status to dictate the payout structure of an inherited IRA. It does NOT matter who the successor beneficiary is or what the successor's relationship to the first beneficiary is.... The successor simply 'steps into the shoes' of the previous beneficiary and follows the exact same payout program that applied to the original Roth IRA beneficiary, with one exception[.]"  MORE >>

"the court will consider the 'meaningful benchmark' requirement that lower courts have applied when evaluating claims that retirement plan investments were mismanaged. Under that standard, plaintiffs must identify comparable alternative investments to show that plan fiduciaries acted imprudently. The Intel plaintiffs argue that the benchmark test has been applied inconsistently across federal circuits and sets too high a bar for workers seeking relief." [Anderson v. Intel Corp. Inv. Policy Comm., No. 22-16268 (9th Cir. May 22, 2025; cert. pet. granted Jan 16, 2026, No. 25-498)]  MORE >>

"In their petition for consideration of their case by the Supreme Court, the plaintiff basically argued that the application of a 'meaningful benchmark' standard baseline for consideration required 'that a complaint must identify a "relevant comparator" fund with "similar objectives" against which the performance of the challenged fund can be measured' -- even though ... nothing in ERISA's text explicitly requires such a rule." [Anderson v. Intel Corp. Inv. Policy Comm., No. 22-16268 (9th Cir. May 22, 2025; cert. pet. granted Jan 16, 2026, No. 25-498)]  MORE >>

"President Donald Trump will announce affordability reforms, which will include permitting retirement plan investors to take penalty-free distributions for a down payment on a home ... Retirement savers are currently permitted to spend up to $10,000 from an IRA for a down payment on a home without a tax penalty, though they would owe ordinary income tax if applicable. Savers can also take a loan from their 401(k) to pay for a home. Permitting such distributions would likely require new legislation."  MORE >>

"Because ERISA is a remedial statute grounded in trust law, and because fiduciaries exclusively control the information necessary to assess causation, the burden of proof on causation properly rests with the fiduciary once a breach and loss are shown. Any contrary rule would undermine ERISA's core purpose, reward informational asymmetry, and render fiduciary duties unenforceable in practice. So, the obvious question is -- why would the EBSA submit an amicus brief that is totally inconsistent with legal precedent and tries to burden plan participants with an impossible task[.]" [Pizarro v. Home Depot, No. 22-13643 (11th Cir. Aug. 2, 2024; cert. pet. filed Dec. 3, 2024; motion to dismiss filed Jan. 7, 2026)]  MORE >>

"The Intel case is not about whether private equity is 'good' or 'bad.' It is about whether ERISA fiduciaries can hide the governing investment contracts, invent benchmarks, and still claim compliance with the strictest fiduciary law in the country. If Intel prevails, the consequences will not stop with private equity. They will extend directly to target-date funds, annuities, private credit, and any opaque product that depends on secrecy to survive scrutiny." [Anderson v. Intel Corp. Inv. Policy Comm., No. 22-16268 (9th Cir. May 22, 2025; cert. pet. granted Jan 16, 2026, No. 25-498)]   MORE >>

"[These numbers] relate to compensation from work: paycheck withholding, the potential need for estimated taxes, and your retirement savings. [1] The Social Security wage base ... [2] Your income-tax bracket and withholding ... [3] Your contribution limit for qualified retirement plans ... While not all employees have them, health savings accounts (HSAs) are also getting an increase in their pre-tax contribution limits for 2026 in response to inflation."  MORE >>

"[O]ptions-only LTI plans are losing popularity, especially for non-executives. New-hire option-only grants for this group are down 11% since 2024. Refresh grants fell even faster, dropping 14% over the same period.... RSU adoption has been climbing steadily across all employee segments, with the biggest jump in refresh grants for non-executives, up 11% since 2023.... Refresh grants have gotten smaller as companies juggle valuation pressure and the cost of bigger new-hire awards."  MORE >>