PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - New IRS Guidance on SECURE 2.0 Act Student Loan Employer Contributions
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - What a Relief! 403(b) Plan Developments
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Court Decisions Impacting Plan Sponsors and Fiduciaries
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
Three Timely Benefits Items Everyone Should Know
Videocast: Asset management regulation in 2020 videocast series – SEC enforcement
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Student Loan Benefits
The IRS this past Friday issued proposed regulations regarding mandatory Roth catch-up contributions. SECURE 2.0 amended the catch-up contribution provisions of the Code....more
In Notice 2024-73, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued guidance on the application of certain non-discrimination rules to long-term, part-time employees in Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) Section 403(b) plans subject...more
SECURE 2.0 was enacted on December 29, 2022. Among its provisions is a requirement that “new” 401(k) plans and private sector 403(b) plans must automatically enroll their eligible employees, but not until the first plan year...more
On September 12, the IRS reminded plan sponsors to review and comply with IRS Notice 2024-02 (the “Notice”), which extended and consolidated deadlines for employers and others sponsoring 401(k), 403(b), 457(b) and other...more
Employee benefits or employee benefit issues can arise anytime you are providing employees something of value other than direct cash compensation. Engagement is very important. I hear it talked about a lot at 401(k) committee...more
Pension-Linked Emergency Savings Accounts (“PLESAs”) are a special retirement plan feature created under SECURE ACT 2.0. PLESAs were first permitted to be made available to participants as of January 1, 2024. PLESAs, which...more
Congress continues to pass laws that move 403(b) plans ever closer to 401(k) plans, but 403(b) plans remain distinct. Understanding these differences allows you to maintain a compliant plan that best serves the needs of your...more
New proposed regulations clarify how employers should implement retirement plan eligibility rules for long-term, part-time ("LTPT") employees. While some questions remain, the proposed regulations provide a number of welcome...more
The IRS has long permitted sponsors of individually designed pension and 401(k) retirement plans qualified under Section 401(a) of the Code to obtain a favorable determination letter on the status of their tax-qualified...more
Many employees who have had to resume repaying their federal student loans this month may find it harder to continue contributing to their employers’ retirement plans. For some employees, there simply is no room in the family...more
The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0) significantly changes the legal and administrative compliance landscape for U.S. retirement plans. Foley & Lardner LLP is authoring a series of articles that take a “deep dive” into key...more
The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (“SECURE 2.0”), enacted on December 29, 2022, as Division T of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (Public Law No. 117-328), builds upon many changes made earlier by the Setting Every...more
A plan sponsor was spared from a 403(b) lawsuit, but the advisor is still on the hook. Two plaintiffs filed a complaint in Texas federal court against their employer, Legacy Counseling Center, Inc. the plan’s manager,...more
Collective investment trusts (“CITs”) have become an increasingly popular choice for 401(k) plan investment menus over the past decade, consistent with a trend toward lower-cost investment options that has been driven, in...more
In Revenue Procedure 2022-40, the IRS recently expanded the determination letter program to allow applications by individually-designed 403(b) plans. This expansion will allow 403(b) plan sponsors to request a determination...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
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued an important reminder of the unique application of the limit under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 415(c) to 403(b) plans on August 20, 2021. The IRS’s “Issue Snapshot”...more
A special IRS-approved correction method available for elective deferral failures in 401(k) and 403(b) plans with automatic contribution features will sunset on December 31, 2020, meaning it will not be available to correct...more
The March 31, 2020 deadline to correct form defects in individually-designed 403(b) plan documents seemed a tiny speck on the distant horizon when the IRS announced it in early 2017. But now, March 31, 2020 looms large and...more
Hundreds of articles have been published over the last two weeks about the SECURE Act (“Act”), which was signed into law in late December as part of the most recent budget bill. As you are certainly aware by now, the Act...more
The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the “SECURE Act”), the largest package of retirement system reforms in over a decade, was enacted on December 20, 2019. Many of the provisions in the...more
On December 20, 2019, after months of uncertainty, the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (“SECURE”) Act finally became law. The SECURE Act makes numerous changes to both the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and...more
The IRS recently amended the rules applicable to hardship distributions from 401(k) and 403(b) plans. The new hardship distribution regulation relaxes some of the restrictions on the availability of hardship distributions...more
In September, the Treasury Department issued final regulations governing hardship withdrawals from 401(k) plans. The final regulations update the existing 2004 regulations to reflect recent statutory changes made to the...more
Nonprofit or governmental employers that sponsor 403(b) plans generally have until March 31, 2020, to correct any defects in their 403(b) plan documents by adopting a pre-approved plan document or by amending their...more