35 pages. "What's New: [1] Additional deductions for seniors.... [2] Repeal of the windfall elimination provision (WEP) and government pension offset (GPO)."  MORE >>

"If catch-up contributions are recharacterized under IRC 415(c) and the participant is subject to the Roth requirement, any pre-tax deferrals must be converted to Roth. That means potential tax consequences for the participant.... The Roth catch up requirement can also create potential nondiscrimination challenges."  MORE >>

"[The Cunningham] opinion flagged a handful of tactics lower courts could use to weed out flawed cases, including ordering plaintiffs to address affirmative defenses early on, assessing attorneys' fees and sanctions, and carefully scrutinizing whether cases should be dismissed for lack of actionable injuries. Trial court judges have begun to follow the high court's advice, providing a potential roadmap for defendants' attorneys juggling the hundreds of would-be class suits filed under ERISA over the past several years."  MORE >>

"The line between who can and cannot invest in private securities is mostly governed by wealth and income, and this is arbitrary, [SEC Chair Paul Atkins] argued.... Atkins went on to argue that workers already have indirect access to alts in their pensions, 'why not extend it to 401(k)s?' He added that 'one cannot necessarily have a balanced portfolio in this current market without having exposure to the private markets.' "  MORE >>

"[P]lans offering emergency expense withdrawals have a participation rate of 76%, compared to 67% in plans without the features. This is as the findings show that 69% of workers have less than six months' worth of emergency savings, and 47% say they can't cover a $1,000 expense.... [O]nly 18% of plans offer emergency expense withdrawals and less than 1% of participants have access to the features[.]"  MORE >>

"In recent remarks at the 53rd Annual Securities Regulation Institute, SEC Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda signaled a potential shift away from disclosure mandates perceived as costly or socially prescriptive, toward a regime more closely tied to investor relevance and statutory requirements."  MORE >>

"In a recent dispute over a retirement plan beneficiary, the family members of a deceased employee were unable to remove his ex-spouse as the primary beneficiary of his account because he'd faxed the request to have his ex-spouse removed from his accounts to his employer's benefits center instead of following the required procedures to update his beneficiary designation.... It's an outcome that demonstrates how easily beneficiary designations can derail an otherwise thoughtful estate plan, especially for executives with significant assets in employer-sponsored plans."  MORE >>