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Regulatory Compliance
ASPPA’s Government Affairs Committee (GAC) recently filed comments with the IRS regarding proposed changes to IRS Form 5500. The comment letter was in response to a proposal published in the Dec. 23, 2014 Federal Register. Under the proposal, new questions will be added to the form and/or its...
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Today President Obama, as expected, will throw his support behind the Department of Labor’s (DOL) controversial fiduciary rule reproposal — but the details of the proposal remain elusive.Published reports indicate that the president will tout the reproposed rule at a speech today at the offices of...
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The Department of Labor’s much-anticipated fiduciary reproposal drew intense criticism Feb. 20 from SEC Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher.Gallagher’s comments, made at the “SEC Speaks in 2015” event, were particularly harsh — not only regarding the potential impact of the DOL’s proposed extension of...
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Exceptions should not be the rule, at least not when it comes to the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary regulation reproposal, according to a new white paper from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
As part of a Feb. 20 event focusing on the “potential harmful impact of fiduciary regulation on...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is seeking input on the implementation of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act (MPRA) of 2014. The MPRA, enacted Dec. 16, 2014, included provisions that amended ERISA by replacing the rules for the partition of multiemployer plans and adding rules for...
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A growing number of employers plan to act this year to curb the cost of future Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation premiums, according to Aon Hewitt. Not all of the employers the human resources firm recently surveyed have an open plan. In fact, a majority have a plan that is either frozen or...
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The ERISA public disclosure website — which houses filings by health and pension plans of private employers — is headed for the cloud. According to Federal Times, the Department of Labor (DOL) is choosing a vendor that can provide a FedRAMP-certified cloud for this purpose.The DOL’s request for...
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If the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs has its way, the Department of Labor has some ’splaining to do on its fiduciary regulation reproposal.In a Feb. 5 letter from Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) to Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, the committee requests that...
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The IRS cautions that entering incorrect information — or in some cases, leaving a field blank — on the Form 5500 increases the likelihood of being targeted for a compliance check.The IRS cites the following examples of these types of errors: Sponsors incorrectly entered 0 participants or left...
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President Obama’s 2016 budget has been issued, and while parts could expand retirement plan coverage, others are likely to undermine those good intentions. No surprise, but the $3 million cap on the value of retirement benefits and the double tax on contributions for those above the 28% tax bracket...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on Jan. 29 announced that the Office of Management and Budget has approved revisions it made to the forms and instructions for standard and distress terminations and missing participants.Under the revisions, a plan administrator of a plan terminating...
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The White House memo on the DOL’s proposal to redefine what constitutes a fiduciary continues to engender negative reaction. Tim Pawlenty, CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable, weighed in on Jan. 28, according to ThinkAdvisor, calling the memo “overly broad” in its condemnation of the financial...
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The 114th Congress has gotten off to a quick start with retirement legislation.During the week of Jan. 25, Collins-Nelson Retirement Security Act of 2015 (S. 266) was introduced in the Senate, while a companion bill, the Retirement Security Act of 2015 (H.R. 557) was introduced in the House. The...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) was not arbitrary and capricious when it concluded that Kentucky Bancshares was obliged to comply with the Section 1107 of the Pension Protection Act (PPA) as well as ERISA’s standard termination requirements when it terminated its retirement plan and...
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A year ago, President Obama touted the voluntary MyRA in his State of the Union Address — but the White House has a lot more to say about retirement this year — and it’s a lot less voluntary.According to a White House fact sheet, the administration is touting a series of retirement tax reform...
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Funding levels of pension plans sponsored by the S&P 1500 fell by 9 percentage points in 2014, from 88% to 79%. According to Mercer, the plans’ collective deficits more than doubled last year, reaching $504 billion at year-end.The plans had been doing well in 2014, Mercer said, having benefited...
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The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has outlined the conditions for determining the existence of a partial plan termination, ruling on the fifth appeal of what it called a “seemingly interminable class action suit.”The ruling came in a case filed just two months short of 19 years ago, in which...
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Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan (D) is arguing that the Land of Lincoln has “police powers” that allow it to change a contract in extraordinary circumstances, including changes to the state’s public pensions contained in a 2013 pension overhaul.Madigan is appealing a lower court ruling that...
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on Jan. 12 issued a draft of the 2015 premium filing form and instructions. It provides information for plans paying premiums for plan years beginning in 2015, including instructions for all the particular forms of data that must be reported.The...
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A regulation that would allow for a “window” period for giving out the annual notice required in most 401(k) plans appears to be heading for a spring 2015 publication date — and that could be good news for your plan sponsor clients.A new addition to the November 2014 DOL guidance plan was a project...
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