2019

2019

On November 22, 2019, the American Retirement Association wrote to the Department of Labor to provide responses to the Department of Labor’s Request for Information (RFI) on the general disclosure framework under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), focusing on design, delivery, and content. [letter]

On November 22, 2019, the American Retirement Association wrote to the Department of Labor to comment on the proposed rule to create a new additional safe harbor for the use of electronic media by employee benefit plans to furnish information to participants and beneficiaries. [letter]

On November 7, 2019, the American Retirement Association wrote to the Department of Labor to request clarification of current guidance on plan expenses. Specifically, the American Retirement Association requests an Advisory Opinion from the Department to permit the use of plan assets to pay for certain limited service provider interactions involving plan design and participant retirement education where they are auxiliary to the primary service. [letter]

On October 31, 2019, the American Retirement Association wrote to the Internal Revenue Service in response to IRS Notice 2018-95 to ask for further clarifications with respect to the Once-In Always-In (OIAI) rule. [Letter]

On October 31, 2019, the American Retirement Association wrote to the Department of Labor about the appropriate reporting of transfers of funds between 403(b) plans on Schedules H and I to the Form 5500. [Letter]

On October 29, 2019, the American Retirement Association wrote to the Department of Labor to answer the Request for Information on whether the Department should further amend their regulations to facilitate the sponsorship of open multiple employer plans. [Letter]

On October 8, 2019, the American Retirement Association and certain individual retirement industry firms wrote to the Internal Revenue Service to request a meeting on an urgent matter relating to the final hardship distribution rules asking for an extension for the interim amendment deadline for providers of prototypes and/or mass volume submitter retirement plans. [Letter]

On September 26, 2019, the American Retirement Association wrote to the Internal Revenue Service on their proposal to provide an exception to the unified plan rule (or one bad apple rule) for defined contribution multiple employer plans (MEPs) to recommend a more expansive process to cover additional situations as well as specific recommendations on the procedures contained in the proposed plans. [Letter]

On August 26, 2019, the American Retirement Association responded to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s request for comments on proposed regulations that make miscellaneous technical corrections, clarifications, and improvements to its rules on Reportable Events and Certain Other Notification Requirements, Annual Financial and Actuarial Information Reporting, Termination of Single-Employer Plans, and Premium Rates. [Letter]

On June 7, 2019, the American Retirement Association wrote to the Internal Revenue Service to recommend an order of priority for Retirement Benefit items to be included on the 2019-2020 Priority Guidance Plan in response to IRS Notice 2019-30.  [Letter]

On May 30, 2019, the American Retirement Association wrote to request that the Internal Revenue Service issue guidance regarding the calculation of the deduction limit for a single-employer defined benefit plan under Section 404(o) of the Internal Revenue Code. [Letter]

On April 3, 2019, the American Retirement Association wrote to the Department of Labor requesting that the ERISA Advisory Council examine the Department’s outstanding guidance concerning the extent to which an ERISA-covered retirement plan may pay the costs attendant to a plan sponsor’s decisions about plan design and other features to encourage retirement savings. [Letter]

On February 4, 2019, the American Retirement Association filed a comment with Ms. Hilary Duke , Assistant General Counsel for Regulatory Affairs at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, providing comments to the PBGC on the proposed form and instructions for PBGC determinations as to whether or not a pension plan is covered by the PBGC. [Letter]

On January 14, 2019, the American Retirement Association filed a comment letter with the Internal Revenue Service with regard to proposed regulations pertaining to hardship distributions from section 401(k) plans. The proposed regulations reflect changes to the law made by the 2017 tax reform bill known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018.  [Letter]