Compliance

It aims to make SIMPLE plans more accessible among small businesses and would raise the contribution and catch-up limits.

The bipartisan legislation is designed to help close the $7.7 trillion retirement savings gap. 

A federal judge found that the plaintiffs provided more than enough evidence to support excessive fee claims, noting that, “Plaintiffs cite deposition testimony of Anthem employees and Pension Committee members who indicate they do not understand the difference between different kinds of share classes or did not ask Vanguard whether lower-cost fee arrangements were available for the plan.”

Details in the text of the complaint explain that the stock price drop that plaintiffs say unduly harmed participants is tied to revelations that certain Johnson and Johnson products contained asbestos.

According to the lawsuit, Stadion directed participants’ accounts into investments that would better benefit itself and Mutual of Omaha, and Mutual of Omaha retained revenue sharing knowing of Stadion’s actions.

An update from law firm Masuda, Funai, Eifert & Mitchell, Ltd. says that based on reviews of Form 5500s, the DOL’s Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) is sending “no action” letters to plan sponsors.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has added fiduciary breach cases to the categories of disputes covered by the mediation program.

In addition, a federal district court has ordered the trustee of the plans not to serve in a fiduciary capacity to any Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) employee benefit plan.

According to the complaint, TIAA has been able to extract “grossly excessive fees” because its fees are tethered not to any actual services it provides to the plan, but rather, to a percentage of assets in the plan.

An informal position taken by the IRS is indicated by it excluding mention of non-qualified church-controlled organizations (non-QCCOs) from the ability to rely on pre-approved plans.

The district court had several times ruled against the firm in summary dismissal and discovery decisions—but the firm has prevailed against ERISA fiduciary breach claims after an 11 day trial.

It developed the new tables to give pension actuaries and plan sponsors current information to assist in setting mortality assumptions once it was determined that public pensions have differing levels of mortality than private pensions.

Federal employees and contractors would be able to take retirement account distributions without penalty and be able to repay the distributions to their accounts.

In addition to asking the high court to weigh in on whether the plaintiff or the defendant bears the burden of proof on loss causation under ERISA, Putnam asked the court to determine whether showing that particular investment options did not perform as well as a set of index funds selected by the plaintiffs with the benefit of hindsight, suffices as a matter of law to establish “losses to the plan.”

PBGC has worked with Sears for several years to improve funding for the company’s plans.

The settlement agreement calls for a gross monetary payment of $10.65 million to a settlement fund and other non-monetary actions by Duke University.

Three Mayer Brown ERISA attorneys discuss the current litigation landscape and offer practical strategies for promoting compliance in 2019.