"How does it make sense to say that if you are a dollar over-funded, there is no risk of harm to the participants, but if you are a dollar under-funded, there is risk of harm or wrongdoing? It’s an illogical way to analyze this issue,” the attorney said.
In a new Snapshot publication, the IRS offers a detailed review of the shifting regulatory provisions applying to pre-retirement hardship distributions from DC plans, noting how these are changing as a result of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018.
An Exposure Draft proposes that if a Section 457 plan meets the definition of a pension plan in Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) guidance, the appropriate GASB pension standards should be applied to the financial reporting for that plan.
The mortality table in question, published in 1971, assumes 90% of Huntington Ingalls Industries’ employees are male and that 90% of contingent beneficiary annuitants are female, while utilizing a 6% interest rate.
Two more age bias cases were filed recently by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and an agency report says age discrimination can thwart employees’ plans to work longer and could affect retirement plan drawdown strategies.
The company will pay $1.2 million, of which, $395,000 goes to class counsel.
The case concerns the issue of how much courts should defer to agency (such as IRS or Department of Labor) interpretations of regulations.
Industry groups argue that the move would strip critical investor protections.
The proposed rulemaking would make technical corrections, clarifications, and improvements to its regulations on Reportable Events and Certain Other Notification Requirements, Annual Financial and Actuarial Information Reporting, Termination of Single-Employer Plans, and Premium Rates.
In testimony to the ERISA Advisory Council, James Haubrock, with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), explained how using findings from retirement plan financial audits can help plan sponsors improve their processes and compliance.
According to Democratic leaders in Congress, the Department of Labor appears to be doing little, if anything, to inform consumers about conflicts of interest in the advisory and brokerage industries.
The decision out of the 8th Circuit ties together the influential Supreme Court decisions known as Fifth Third v. Dudenhoeffer and Tibble v. Edison.
The central objective of the Statement 84, Fiduciary Activities, is to enhance the consistency and comparability of fiduciary activity reporting by state and local governments.
A federal court found plan fiduciaries acted with loyalty and prudence, and that plaintiffs failed to show the failure to have an investment policy in place, standing alone, proves imprudence.
ERISA allows plan participants to sue to remedy demonstrable harms they have suffered as a result of fiduciary breaches. Less clear is how to apply ERISA’s remedies when a breach is alleged to have occurred within a well-funded pension plan.
MFS has also agreed to pay $6,875,000 into a qualified settlement fund to resolve the claims of the court-approved class.
Rachel Leiser Levy, from Groom Law Group, explains changes from the proposed HRA regulation in the final regulation, and says it remains to be seen how this will affect the employer health benefits market.
Both chambers of the State Assembly have passed legislation that would require religious organizations that manage pension plans to send regular updates on the financial health of the pensions to plan participants.
Starting next January, employers can give their workers tax-deferred funds to go shopping for a health plan, thanks to individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements.