PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - ERISA Forfeiture Litigation
ERISA Blog | Changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rules A Primer for Self-Insured Group Health Plans
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - What the J&J Case Means for Plan Administrators
The No Surprises Act: A Cost Saving Opportunity for Employer Plan Sponsors
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - New Federal Rule Aims to Hold Investment Advisors to a Higher Standard
Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation: Getting Ready for 2024 – Top-Hat Plans — Special Edition Podcast
Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation: Getting Ready for 2024 - Health and Welfare Plan Developments — Special Edition Podcast
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Partial Plan Terminations
Podcast Episode 189: Adding Context to Compliance and Color To Your Legal Practice
#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
An Inside Look as a Juror - FCRA Focus Podcast
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Multiemployer Plans
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Court Decisions Impacting Plan Sponsors and Fiduciaries
(A)ESOP's Fables - The Income and Estate Tax-Free ESOP
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - What Constitutes Plan Assets Under ERISA?
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Group Health Plan Service Provider Compensation Disclosure Requirements
Update and Discussion on Legal and Practical Issues
Welcome to 'Just Compensation'
#WorkforceWednesday: SCOTUS in Review, Biden Acts to Limit Non-Competes, NY HERO Act Model Safety Plans - Employment Law This Week®
We understand that running an automotive supplier business involves more than just industry-specific issues. That's why we regularly provide important insights and tips on broader legal trends to help you navigate challenges...more
“Top hat plans” —non-qualified deferred compensation plans that can be exempt from most of the requirements of Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 or ERISA—can be a useful tool for employers looking to provide...more
Since 1984, citation to Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council ("Chevron") has meant that courts should defer to an agency's interpretations of an ambiguous statute—as long as the agency's interpretation is...more
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have updated the Submission Instructions and User Manual for the Gag Clause Prohibition...more
On behalf of the ESOPs, Benefits & Compensation team, we hope your Summer is off to a great start. In the time of family vacations and out-of-office replies, the pace of employee benefits changes—both large and small—remains...more
401(k) plan sponsors are seeing a string of lawsuits challenging their use of forfeitures to offset matching contributions. In the most recent suit, plaintiffs claimed that a 401(k) plan sponsor violated its fiduciary duties...more
The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) is pushing back on the Department of Labor (DOL) ask to require retirement plans to provide what it calls excessive amounts of participant information for its SECURE 2.0-mandated...more
If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a hundred times (ok, maybe just that one time) – recruiting and retaining top talent can be a headache for nonprofit organizations forced to compete against for-profit organizations...more
During the next several weeks, we will publish a series of articles that dive deeply into “health plan hygiene” relating to health and welfare benefit plan fiduciary issues and how employers can protect themselves in this...more
Today, employees are more likely than ever to seek new employment opportunities and change jobs. These employees may leave a company before becoming fully vested in their qualified retirement plan benefits – which may result...more
From the 2010 outset of its project to extend ERISA fiduciary status broadly to financial intermediaries, including insurance agents, the US Department of Labor (DOL) has consistently relied on the evolution of the private...more
The June Monthly Minute highlights recent DOL guidance on annuity provider selection for defined benefit plans and IRS Q&As that provide details on SECURE 2.0’s optional emergency and domestic abuse victim distributions for...more
The US Department of Labor and Internal Revenue Service have issued coordinated guidance on the pension-linked emergency savings account (PLESA), a new in-plan emergency savings account feature created by the SECURE 2.0 Act...more
Employee benefits law is mostly drawn from two federal sources—the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA. Just what is “ERISA,” though? Its official reference is the “Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.” That means the...more
A recent rash of class action lawsuits in California claim that using forfeitures to reduce future employer contributions to tax-qualified retirement plans runs afoul of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)....more
The DOL recently finalized amendments to the QPAM exemption that will considerably alter the exemption’s conditions effective as of June 17, 2024 (for a detailed summary of the changes, please see our post here). There are a...more
Check out our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for the week of May 13, 2024 – May 17, 2024....more
For employers that sponsor and administer employee benefit plans, various pieces of federal legislation create a multilayered regime of detailed regulatory requirements. Primarily, employer-sponsored benefit plans are...more
All qualified retirement plans are subject to a myriad of requirements of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA). The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is charged with enforcing the...more
One of the most common questions that we receive is whether an employee can change their benefits elections after the plan year has already started (also referred to as a mid-year change). The answer is very fact-specific...more
“Missing participants” have long been a thorn in the side of plan sponsors and administrators, as they are owed a retirement benefit, but are unable to be found or unresponsive to plan communications. As a partial solution,...more
There have been recent developments from both the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and the Department of Labor (“DOL”) and pending court cases about how plan forfeitures under defined contribution retirement plans must be...more
One of the most basic duties of a defined contribution plan sponsor is to ensure that that there is no delay and participants’ salary deferral elections are correctly and timely deposited into the retirement plan. Not only is...more
I ’ve lived a while and I have certainly seen a lot of epic disasters and catastrophes. I’m not talking just about real life but about retirement plans. There are many errors that retirement plans can have, such as failing to...more
On April 2, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced its final amendment to prohibited transaction class exemption 84-14 (the QPAM Exemption). The QPAM Exemption is a broad-based class exemption relied upon by many...more