Advertisement
Fiduciary Governance
The Five W’s (or as they are sometimes called, Five W’s and one H) are questions whose answers are considered basic in information gathering in a variety of settings.There are a lot of questions that plan fiduciaries should ask, but here are five W’s and an H that every new plan fiduciary — or...
READ MORE
A congressional subcommittee hearing Dec. 2 gave voice to the conflicting perspectives on the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary proposal, though it seems unlikely that anyone’s perspective was changed.The hearing, “Principles for Ensuring Retirement Advice Serves the Best Interests of Working...
READ MORE
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has amended its regulation on allocation of assets in single-employer plans by substituting a new table for determining expected retirement ages for participants in pension plans that are distressed or are being involuntarily terminated and that have...
READ MORE
The good news is that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has established a date for issuance of a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for the Personalized Investment Advice Standard of Conduct.The bad news? That date, according to the SEC Office of Management and Budget’s fall agenda, is...
READ MORE
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued a comprehensive list of regulatory projects the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is undertaking.Proposed Regulations Missing participants: A proposed rule to implement Section 410 of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, which allows...
READ MORE
The Department of Labor has criticized an effort by a bipartisan group of members of the U.S. House of Representatives to address concerns about its proposed fiduciary rule, with a DOL spokesman calling the initiative “puzzling and disappointing.”Reps. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), Richard Neal (D-Mass.),...
READ MORE
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Jo White on Nov. 18 faced some tough questions from members of the House Financial Services Committee from both parties concerning her agency’s work on setting a uniform fiduciary standard of conduct. White was testifying before the committee...
READ MORE
Another “excessive fee” lawsuit was settled recently — but what’s more interesting than the settlement amount is the speed with which it was reached and how it’s going to be spread among the parties.The settlement of the class action came in the case of Karolyn Kruger, M.D., et al v. Novant Health...
READ MORE
Outsourcing plan administration is not new. And it can be more than a matter of mere convenience, since it offers assistance in meeting increasingly complicated regulatory and administrative requirements. But it’s not a full absolution from all responsibilities, argues Fiduciary Plan Governance in...
READ MORE
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is working “expeditiously” on a uniform fiduciary standard, according to SEC Chair Mary Jo White. She made her comments at the Nov. 10 annual meeting of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA).White reported that her agency is “...
READ MORE
A frequent commentary on today’s plan designs is that they are more focused on accumulation than the eventual spend-down of those savings.It’s said that defined contribution plans too often not only facilitate lump-sum distributions, but, in design at least, encourage them. And yet, despite a...
READ MORE
Another bill looking to derail the Department of Labor’s fiduciary proposal has been introduced in Congress.This one, the Retirement Choice Protection Act of 2015 (H.R. 3922), was introduced by Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) — a member of the House Ways and Means Committee — with Social Security...
READ MORE
No proposed regulation has generated more activity, discussion and controversy this year than the proposed fiduciary rule the Department of Labor (DOL) re-issued in April. As the DOL prepares the final iteration of the rule, it may be useful to look back on how this all came about and what it...
READ MORE
The Windy City played host in the first week of November to a gathering focused on developing ideas to address America’s retirement savings challenge — but government-run solutions dominated the conversation.At the conference, “Saving — America’s Challenge and Opportunity in the Twenty-First...
READ MORE
With concerns about the final Department of Labor (DOL) fiduciary rule and its potential impact on low- and middle-income families still percolating on Capitol Hill, a bipartisan group of House of Representatives members has outlined a series of legislative principles to help guide those efforts....
READ MORE
“In my 40 years of doing this, I never thought I’d see the day we’d have a president giving us direct instructions …” [on state-run, automatic enrollment IRA programs], Assistant Secretary of Labor Phyllis Borzi told the ERISA Advisory Council Nov. 3-4.At the hearing, Borzi noted that about 68...
READ MORE
They may not have been willing to block the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary proposal with legislation, but a group of Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives are asking for some additional time to comment on the final proposal before it’s final.The request comes in the form of...
READ MORE
There’s not much time left in 2015, and that applies to more than just the calendar. It also applies to certain required minimum distributions (RMDs). The IRS issued a reminder in IR-2015-122 on Oct. 29 that those born before July 1, 1945 generally must receive payments from their IRAs by Dec. 31....
READ MORE
The Department of Labor’s (DOL) proposed fiduciary rule would make many changes. One of them — and one central to what constitutes a fiduciary act and who a fiduciary is — is what constitutes a recommendation.And that was one of the topics addressed by panelists in a discussion at the recent LIMRA...
READ MORE
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) said Oct. 28 that the 2016 annual maximum guaranteed benefit for a retiree at age 65, as well as that for multiemployer plans, will remain at the same levels as those set for 2015.The 2016 annual maximum guaranteed benefit for a retiree at age 65 will...
READ MORE