News & Analysis as of

Employee Benefits Plan Documents

Bricker Graydon LLP

Small Change to Cash-Outs Could have Large Financial Effect

Bricker Graydon LLP on

Beginning this year, plan sponsors may increase their qualified plan’s mandatory cash-out limit from $5,000 to $7,000. The increase was enacted by SECURE 2.0, and applies to distributions made after December 31, 2023....more

Bricker Graydon LLP

Forfeitures Account - The Next New Topic of ERISA Litigation Trends & Should You Be Concerned?

Bricker Graydon LLP on

A handful of new ERISA litigation cases (including McManus v. Clorox Co., N.D Cal. No. 4:23-cv-05325) are taking aim at forfeiture accounts and trying to pull them into the never-ending list of ways in which retirement plan...more

Bricker Graydon LLP

The Who, the When and the “Oh, No” of 401(k) Plan Notices

Bricker Graydon LLP on

It’s that time of year again when calendar year 401(k) plans must send annual retirement plan notices. As you work with your service providers to make sure all notices are sent, now may be a good time to reacquaint yourself...more

Bricker Graydon LLP

New Optional In-Service Withdrawal Right for Domestic Abuse Victims

Bricker Graydon LLP on

The next installment of our updates on SECURE 2.0 is on another new in-service withdrawal option. SECURE 2.0 allows plan sponsors of defined contribution plans to amend their plans to allow plan participants who are victims...more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

The problem of free or cheap plan documents

As an ERISA attorney who drafts plan documents at a flat fee, my biggest competitors are not other ERISA attorneys, but third-party administration (TPA) firms. ...more

Holland & Knight LLP

Court Compels Proposed ESOP Class to Individual Arbitration Based on Plan Document

Holland & Knight LLP on

Historically, courts around the country have approached the enforceability of class action waivers and arbitration provisions in ESOP and Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) plan documents differently,...more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

Get those participation agreements done

It’s been happening a lot lately: a plan sponsor with several participating employers, not realizing that participation agreements for some of these employers weren’t done. This is just a silly mistake to make....more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

So You Missed the IRS’s Preapproved Defined Contribution Retirement Plan Restatement Deadline - Now What?

Every six years, all preapproved defined contribution retirement plans (such as 401(k) plans) must be restated in new plan documents that have fresh approval from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The deadline to adopt the...more

Groom Law Group, Chartered

Individual and Pre-Approved 403(b) Plan Documents – Evaluating What to Do in 2022

Background - Back in 2013, the IRS opened its first 6-year cycle of reviewing and issuing opinion letters on 403(b) pre-approved documents. Most of the approval letters for that first set of plans were issued to the...more

Williams Mullen

PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Time to Tidy-Up Plan Documents

Williams Mullen on

On this episode of Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion, host Brydon DeWitt reminds us that with priorities focused on taking care of pandemic employees and plan participants, plan administrators may need some extra clean-up...more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

Get a scanner

Being a plan sponsor is a tough job and the amount of paperwork that goes with it can be overwhelming. The paperwork includes plan documents, summary plan descriptions, amendment, valuations, trusts statements, and payroll....more

Williams Mullen

Plan Sponsors Should Review Restated Pre-Approved Plan Documents with Care

Williams Mullen on

Employers using pre-approved plan documents for their defined contribution retirement plans, such as 401(k) plans, should carefully review restated adoption agreements and basic plan documents that may be issued by their...more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

IRS Documents opine on PEP plan documents

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in their January 20, 2021 edition of Employee Plans News opined that pre-approved qualified retirement plan documents may be used to establish arrangements known as pooled employer plans or...more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Tenth Circuit Interpretation of ERISA Notice Requirement Impacts Plan Administrator’s Right to Deferential Standard of Review

When an ERISA plan delegates authority to the plan administrator to interpret the plan documents for benefit determinations, the plan administrator typically is entitled to a deferential standard of judicial review, and...more

Best Best & Krieger LLP

The Differences Between Bundled and Unbundled Retirement Plan Servicing Arrangements

When it comes to retirement plan servicing arrangements for most public agencies, there are basically two flavors: bundled and unbundled. It is important for public plan sponsors and plan fiduciaries to understand the...more

Best Best & Krieger LLP

Public Agency Retirement Plan Documents: Are They Properly Signed and Dated?

Based on numerous requests for plan documents from public agency clients, we know that many cannot find complete sets of their historical and current retirement plan documents that are properly authorized, signed and dated....more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Whistleblowing Hits Employee Benefits World

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

Seyfarth Synopsis: Recently a “whistleblower” leaked that the IRS had internally announced an upcoming modification to the very popular voluntary correction program (“VCP”) that would have been a significant disincentive for...more

Dickinson Wright

IRS Memorandum a Reminder to Employers to Avoid a Tax Disaster by Keeping Copies of Signed Plan Documents

Dickinson Wright on

In a recent Chief Counsel General Advice Memorandum (“Memo”), the IRS provides a helpful reminder that basic recordkeeping and organization techniques can avoid significant tax liability for employers and employees in the...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Avoid the IRS’s Nuclear Option – Sign that Plan Document!

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

Seyfarth Synopsis: In a recent Chief Counsel Memorandum (“CCM”), the IRS stated that on audit, agents should pursue plan disqualification for a failure to produce a signed plan document. The IRS was responding to a 2018 Tax...more

Morgan Lewis

Section 403(b) Plan Remedial Amendment Periods: Out with the Old, In with the New

Morgan Lewis on

With the March 31 deadline to correct form defects in plan documents under the Initial Remedial Amendment Period fast approaching, employers now have less than two months to ensure that their 403(b) plans are in compliance...more

Holland & Hart - The Benefits Dial

I Want to Know, Have You Ever Seen…your plan documents?

Owners and employees of smaller organizations often find themselves stretched in many directions. With all of the demands on one’s time associated with operating a business, it is not uncommon to see attention to the...more

Morgan Lewis - ML Benefits

IRS: Show Me the Signatures for Qualified Plan Documents

Tax laws have long required that qualified retirement plans timely adopt written plan documents and amendments. But what evidence must a plan sponsor provide to an IRS auditor to prove that they have timely adopted a written...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Fix a Decade of Document Errors? Yes You Can!

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

Seyfarth Synopsis: In two months (on March 31, 2020), the window closes for 403(b) plan sponsors to take advantage of the unique opportunity to retroactively amend their 403(b) retirement plans to correct document errors...more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

Keep it simple stupid

As they once said in This is Spinal Tap, there is a fine line between stupid and clever. I can assure you that Michael McKeon who played David St. Hubbins in the movie and co-wrote it, was not in plan administration. Based on...more

Stinson - Benefits Notes Blog

IRS Memorandum Limits Exceptions for Retaining Signed Retirement Plan Documents – (excuse that “my dog ate my plan documents” will...

Generally, for a tax qualified retirement plan to be adopted, the plan document must be signed and dated by the sponsoring employer and retained. However, in Val Lanes Recreation Center Corp. v. Commissioner of Internal...more

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