The principal regulators of US employee benefits have recently published updates to their guidance plans for the coming months.

• On May 22, 2019, the US Department of Labor (DOL) published its Semi-Annual Regulatory Agenda, stating the agency’s current and long-termregulatory activities. This publication takes the form of a Federal Register notice to comply with certain administrative requirements. DOL’s agenda and related materials include 13 pending projects related to employee benefits, which are listed in the chart below in order of the projected timetable for next steps. (In the ordinary course, the projected dates shown on the agenda may prove to be ambitious.)
• On June 17, 2019, the US Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released their Third Quarter Update to the 2018-2019 Priority Guidance Plan, often informally referred to as the IRS Business Plan, which lists those issues that will be the subject of formal guidance from July 2018 through June 2019. The Third Quarter Update identifies 16 pending items addressing retirement benefits, and 15 pending items addressing executive compensation, health care and other benefits. The items are listed in the chart below in the reverse order of when they first appeared on the agenda.

Projects added to the agendas since they were last published are shown in bold. There are three new DOL initiatives and no new IRS initiatives.

• Of the 44 projects, 17 have been pending for at least five years.
• One of the three new DOL initiatives—electronic delivery of required participant notices —reflects an August 2018 White House directive to explore ways in which to: (1) reduce the costs and burdens imposed on employers and other plan fiduciaries responsible for the production and distribution of retirement plan disclosures required under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and the Internal Revenue Code; and (2) make said disclosures more understandable and useful for participants and beneficiaries.
• The DOL fiduciary rule remains on the agenda, but the projected date has been further delayed from September 2019 to December 2019 despite last year’s shift from a “long-term item” (Spring 2018 agenda) to a “current item” (Fall 2018 agenda). Reports published since the SEC’s issuance of Regulation Best Interest (commonly referred to as “Reg BI”) suggest that DOL may have its next initiative ready for release this fall.

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