PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - New IRS Guidance on SECURE 2.0 Act Student Loan Employer Contributions
What Can A Tax Attorney Do For You? A Podcast With Janathan Allen
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Auto-Portability: A New Way to Keep Retirement Savings Growing
#WorkforceWednesday: SECURE Act 2.0 - What 401(k) Plan Sponsors Need to Know - Employment Law This Week®
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Plan Administrators’ 2022 Year-End Checklist
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Court Decisions Impacting Plan Sponsors and Fiduciaries
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Helping Employers Address the Gender Gap in Retirement Savings
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Millennials, Boomers and Retirement Planning
The Form 5500: What All Employers and Plan Administrators Need to Know and How to Avoid Costly Fines
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Cryptocurrency in 401(k) Plans
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - What Constitutes Plan Assets Under ERISA?
2022 Resolutions: What Healthcare Practices Need To Tackle In the New Year
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Cautionary Tales for Preapproved Plan Documents
DOL Clarifies Timing of Lifetime Income Disclosures in Benefit Statements
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Back to the Future: SECURE Act and SECURE Act 2.0
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Payroll Integration for Plan Sponsors
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Plan Administrators’ 2020 Year-End Checklist
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Cybersecurity Considerations for Retirement Plan Sponsors
Three Timely Benefits Items Everyone Should Know
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - COVID-19 Edition - Employee Benefits Considerations When Conducting Furloughs and Layoffs
Under recently finalized federal regulations (commonly referred to as the “Fiduciary Rule”) that were scheduled to become effective on September 23, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor intended to expand the fiduciary...more
On April 25, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) finalized a collection of regulatory changes in its ongoing quest to update the definition of a “fiduciary” under ERISA and Section 4975 of the Internal Revenue Code...more
Following previous failed attempts to expand the fiduciary liability of financial services providers, the DOL released a new rule that broadens the definition of “fiduciary” under ERISA. The new rule is expected to face...more
On Tuesday, April 23, 2024, the Department of Labor (the “DOL”) issued final regulations regarding investment fiduciary obligations and the definition of an “Investment Advice Fiduciary” (the “Final Regulations”) under the...more
In the laundry list of retirement plan administrative and operational requirements, plan sponsors may sometimes overlook their obligations with respect to terminated vested employees. Even though these individuals have left...more
The new “retirement security rule” package, issued by the U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) on October 31, 2023, is the latest chapter in an almost 15-year effort by the DOL to amend the five-part test in its 1975...more
On November 3, 2023, the Department of Labor (DOL) published in the Federal Register its long-awaited proposed update to its “fiduciary rule” that defines when a person becomes a fiduciary to a retirement plan subject to...more
Like it or not, “gig” work is becoming the norm and not the exception and a recent article published by CNBC proves the point. Earlier this month they reported that 20% of adults own what pension folks call an inactive 401(K)...more
It’s not often that business owners get good news from the government, but small and even some medium-sized businesses with 401(k) plans got a helping hand from the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) earlier this year when the...more
Welcome to Spring! We hope the new season finds you ready for the upcoming benefits changes that 2023 has in store. ...more
On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed the Secure 2.0 Act of 2022 (the “Secure 2.0 Act”) into law. The Secure Act 2.0 builds off of the Secure Act, the last major retirement plan legislation enacted at the end of 2019,...more
The wait is over for SECURE 2.0, a long-awaited (and debated) package of retirement plan reforms. Today, Congress passed the “SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022” as part of the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act; President Biden is...more
The Department of Labor considers a rollover recommendation to be a recommendation to liquidate the investments in a participant’s 401(k) account or to transfer (and change) securities. In addition, as explained in...more
Cryptocurrencies and digital assets—such as bitcoin, ether and non-fungible tokens (NFTs)—have become some of the hottest investment products in recent years. The growing interest has inevitably led to retirement plan...more
Since 1996, the US Department of Labor granted more than 1,200 individual exemptions from the ERISA prohibited transaction rules. One of the distinctive features of ERISA is its prohibition, in ERISA section 406 as a...more
Benjamin Franklin once said “don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” While that is always prudent advice, the Department of Labor (DOL) believes it’s best to grant an extension to investment advisors and...more
Attorneys from our Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation practice provide insights on current issues facing various types of employee benefits programs. Topics include: - Cybersecurity - DOL Audit Initiatives -...more
In light of a new DOL audit initiative and increasing cybersecurity threats to ERISA benefit plans, ERISA plan sponsors and fiduciaries should be prepared to answer some important questions: Do the cybersecurity programs of...more
The Department of Labor’s Prohibited Transaction Exemption and Its Impact on Recommendations to Plans, Participants and IRAs (Part 6) - On February 16, 2021, the DOL’s prohibited transaction exemption (PTE) 2020-02 became...more
The SECURE Act of 2019 made three statutory changes to ERISA regarding lifetime income benefit payments from defined contribution plans (e.g., 401(k), 403(b), profit sharing, and money purchase pension plans). This blog will...more
by Bret Busacker The Department of Labor has returned to the Fiduciary Rule once again with its third attempt to provide a regulatory framework that protects retirement investors while not imposing unnecessary burdens on...more
On June 29, 2020, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced1 its new approach to the standards for financial institutions and investment professionals who provide investment advice on a nondiscretionary basis to 401(k) plans,...more
Proposed ERISA Restrictions on ESG Investing - On June 23, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) issued a proposed rule that would limit when and how fiduciaries of plans subject to the U.S. Employee Retirement...more
One of the most forgotten parts of a 401(k) plan is the automatic rollover and who the automatic rollover provider is. I was going through a Department of Labor audit on a terminated plan and they asked me how the automatic...more
I’m not a fan of annuities, especially in 401(k) plans. Yet, it seems that the insurance industry got their say with the addition of annuities in the SECURE Act. The SECURE Act includes three law additions that might...more