Over the past several months, we have seen a number of public agency clients struggle through the process of evaluating and selecting a retirement plan adviser based only on generic questionnaires, a few phone calls, and an...more
9/28/2020
/ 401k ,
457(b) Plans ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary ,
Financial Adviser ,
Investment Adviser ,
Public Agencies ,
Public Employees ,
Retirement Plan ,
Retirement Plan Providers
Not surprisingly, many cities and special districts no longer have monies available in their budgets to spend on things such as legal fees to analyze and correct plan administration problems and compliance issues. When it is...more
8/12/2020
/ 457(b) Plans ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Compliance ,
Employee Benefits ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Plan Administrators ,
Public Agencies ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Reimbursements ,
Retirement Plan ,
State Constitutions
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
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
As many California public agencies are forced to furlough employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, questions arise as to how furloughs are treated for retirement plan distribution rules’ purposes....more
Although many employers plan to make changes to their retirement plans to take advantage of employee-friendly CARES Act provisions, public agencies should not blindly adopt recommended changes without thinking about the steps...more
With very few exceptions, the rules governing governmental 457(b) plans require a “severance of employment” to occur before a distribution can be made. Recently, we came across yet another of those arcane, little-known rules...more
10/9/2019
/ 457(b) Plans ,
CalPERS ,
Distribution Rules ,
Employee Benefits ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Labor Regulations ,
Public Agencies ,
Public Benefits ,
Retirement Plan ,
Severance Agreements ,
Termination
There continues to be new, complicated problems arising from the improper completion and use of off-the-shelf governmental pre-approval plans.
Generally, a pre-approved plan from the document provider is reviewed and...more
Many cities and special districts establish and maintain more 457(b) plans than they really need. We routinely see public agencies with as many as two, three or four 457(b) plans. How and why does this happen? And, are there...more
Due to the IRS’ different treatment of private sector and public agency boards of directors, it comes as little surprise that many California special districts and public agencies continue to classify their board members as...more
7/23/2019
/ 1099s ,
Board of Directors ,
Common Law Test ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Independent Contractors ,
IRS ,
Misclassification ,
Payroll Taxes ,
Public Agencies ,
Public Officials ,
Risk Management ,
Tax Liability ,
Tax Planning ,
Wage and Hour
To prepare for and manage significantly increased CalPERS employer contribution rates in the coming years, California public agencies approved the establishment and funding of so-called “pension rate stabilization trusts.” ...more
Almost 4 years ago, we discussed an IRS private letter ruling that raised serious concerns about public agency money purchase pension plans. The ruling allowed employees to “opt-in” to, or elect, their own rate of employee...more
Like the Energizer Bunny, some retirement plans continue to “run,” even though the employer believes they are “no longer in use.” This problem is particularly prevalent with public agencies that have a tendency to switch from...more
Many California cities and public agencies negotiate with — and reach memorandums of understanding with — their union bargaining partners on a regular basis. In some cases, these unions are local police or firefighter...more
Within the last few days, we have received a number of emails and calls from public agency clients stating that the IRS wrote them to demand an Employer Shared Responsibility Payment amounting to millions of dollars. ...more