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Top 10 Updates to the California Family Rights Act Regulations

"[1] Employers must display new poster regarding [California Family Rights Act (CFRA)] rights ... [2] Extended health insurance continuation requirement ... [3] Employers now have only five business days to respond to CFRA leave requests ... [4] Substitution of vacation, PTO or paid sick leave during a CFRA leave ... [5] Time increments for intermittent leave ... [6] New light duty requirement when only intermittent leave is required ... [7] CFRA's protections expanded to broader group of employees ... [8] Successors in interest are 'covered employers' and additional guidance on joint employer situation ... [9] Reinstatement rights ... [10] New certification of health care provider form."

DOL Updates Late 5500 Correction Program

"Paper filings are no longer accepted for either timely or delinquent filings ... The DOL added an online tool to its website ..., designed to assist filers in determining which versions of Forms 5500/5500-SF and schedules to use when filing delinquent annual reports or amending prior year annual reports under EFAST2 ... Filers who utilize the online payment system are no longer required to mail a hard copy of the Form 5500 (without schedules) to another DVFC address."

Proposed Contraceptive Compromise Rule Released

"[T]he Departments did not address potential ERISA issues that this structure could implicate. Remember, the whole construct is that the employer is not arranging for, paying for, or otherwise providing the coverage. So is this individual coverage or employer coverage (or neither)? Are Forms 5500 required if more than 100 individuals select the separate contraceptive coverage? Who would be responsible for the preparation of those forms and SPDs?"

New Year's Resolutions for Plan Fiduciaries

"Obtain/review fiduciary liability insurance policies.... Practice procedural prudence.... Hold regular plan fiduciary/committee meetings.... Review, and if necessary revise, your plan's investment policy statement.... Monitor performance of investment funds and investment managers.... Review and monitor plan expenses and fees.... Consider an audit to ensure compliance with the ERISA 404(c) and qualified default investment alternative (QDIA) requirements.... Conduct a compliance review of your plan documents.... Consider hiring professionals and other service providers to help perform certain fiduciary tasks.... Provide fiduciary education and training to plan fiduciaries."

SEC Proposes Clawback Rules

"The SEC proposal acknowledges that one result of implementation of incentive-based recovery policies may be that executive officers demand incentive-based compensation be a smaller portion of their total compensation. As incentive-based compensation typically aligns the interests of executive officers and shareholders, less incentive-based compensation may move shareholder and executive interests in opposing directions."

Discretionary Clawback Policies: Risk of Variable Stock Plan Accounting

"Existing accounting guidance (ASC 718-10-30-24) would seem to suggest that clawback features should not disrupt fixed accounting treatment because of their contingent nature.... Companies adopting or modifying existing clawback policies should evaluate the potential risks of discretionary provisions ... before adopting or revising those policies. This will be particularly true for public companies when it comes time to evaluate compliance with the much-anticipated SEC guidance on clawbacks that will finally implement the Dodd-Frank legislation of 2010."

Are You Doing a Quarterly Loan Checkup?

"Plan sponsors should check with their third party recordkeepers on a quarterly basis to check on the status of any loans for which payment is not current. Ideally, this checkup should occur a month or six weeks before the end of the calendar quarter to allow time to correct any loans that could inadvertently go into default (such as when a plan sponsor fails to process loan repayment elections due to a payroll error)."

Qualified Plans at Risk When Jumbled With True Tax Expenditures

"[T]here seems to be ample evidence that, based on our employer-sponsored system, tax expenditures are a critical component. They encourage plan adoption and retention by employers, plan contributions by both employers and employees and assist greatly in America's overall savings for retirement. The critical unknown based on the GAO question is a determination of 'how much' expenditure is needed to make sure that there are net benefits in the form of efficiency gains for society as a whole."

Roth Opportunity Expansion Makes Work for Planners, Employers

"One might think of lots of good policy reasons for this expansion (like reducing plan leakage; giving participants greater flexibility for retirement planning), but Congress did not pass this law for good policy reasons. It passed it to raise revenue, plain and simple.... There are definite tax advantages for many plan participants, but it's important for someone who understands the vagaries to analyze whether or not conversion makes sense in individual situations. Plan sponsors whose plans don't currently provide for Roth accounts should also be busy determining whether or not to add the Roth option to their plans. If they opt to do so, a plan amendment and a summary of material modifications will be need to be prepared."