Employers that do not timely deposit participant deferrals and loan contributions to their employer sponsored retirement plans can be subject to Department of Labor (DOL) penalties for breaching their fiduciary duties. We discussed in our prior blog post the DOL’s amendments to its Voluntary Fiduciary Compliance (VFC) Program, which now ...
By: Sherry Porter
In 2022, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) of the U. S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued guidance cautioning retirement plan fiduciaries on the investment of 401(k) plan assets in cryptocurrency and other digital assets. EBSA is the agency that enforces the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA ...
As businesses continue to respond to recent shifts in the U.S. economy, some employers have had to make the challenging decision to implement cost-cutting measures and reductions to their workforce. While a reduction in force can result in many moving parts for business operations, employers should be careful not to overlook the less obvious ...
Last week, the Departments of Labor, Treasury, and Health and Human Services (the “Departments”) issued a nonenforcement policy regarding the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) final regulations, issued in 2024 as they relate to nonquantitative treatment limitation (NQTL) comparative analysis. The ...
If your organization sponsors a 403(b) retirement plan, there’s a crucial Internal Revenue Service (IRS) deadline you can’t afford to ignore. The IRS has announced a plan restatement deadline for 403(b) plans. Failure to act within this window could expose your organization to compliance risks and penalties. If you sponsor a non-profit ...
When an employee forgets—or chooses not—to notify you of a divorce, it can cause a ripple effect on your benefit plan administration, particularly with your health plan. Here's what you need to know and do to keep your health plan compliant and minimize risk.
Coverage Ends at Divorce
The first thing you need to know is when coverage terminates ...
The Department of Labor (DOL) issued guidance earlier this month that will affect defined benefit plans’ annual funding notices. The annual funding notice requirements were amended by SECURE 2.0 and are effective for plan years beginning after December 31, 2023. The changes made by the Act, and the guidance issued by the DOL, are intended to ...
Under SECURE 2.0, plan sponsors were granted discretion to determine whether or not the plan would recoup "inadvertent benefit overpayments." However, SECURE 2.0, did not define the term, leaving implementation of the new provision unclear for plan sponsors. To provide more guidance on the provision, last year, the IRS released Notice 2024-77
Late last year, the Department of Labor (DOL) launched the public Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database. Created as part of SECURE 2.0, the DOL hopes that the database will serve as a centralized location to help missing participants and beneficiaries locate their retirement benefits. Missing participants remain a focus area on audit ...
If your health insurance premiums have gone up again, you are not alone. For that reason, we frequently get questions from clients on whether there is anything they can do to get high claimants off of their plans. The short answer is no, an employer cannot kick a high claimant off their health plan even if the employee was lasered by your stop loss. There ...