The Form 5500: What All Employers and Plan Administrators Need to Know and How to Avoid Costly Fines
The Department of Labor (“DOL”) is relying on a recent Supreme Court decision to effectively extend the amount of time the agency has to bring fiduciary breach claims. DOL investigations often last years, so it is common for...more
Most administration conducted by third-party administrators (TPAs) is quite good, but the juicy and scary stories are about the terrible TPAs and the havoc they create....more
President Joe Biden has been in office for 34 days and his nominee for Secretary of Labor, Marty Walsh, has not yet been confirmed. So far, Mr. Walsh has not publicly stated much regarding his views or intended priorities...more
When I was 13 and I had my Bar Mitzvah, I plunked down about $2,000 in 1985 money for a state of the art Apple IIe with a monochrome monitor. One of the first pieces of software I bought was the top desktop publishing...more
On April 28, 2020, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”) issued three documents related to COVID-19 relief: (i) EBSA Disaster Relief Notice 2020-20 (EBSA Notice 2020-01); (ii) the text of a final rule...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
Seyfarth Synopsis: Administrators of ERISA plans frequently receive requests from participants, beneficiaries, and their representatives for plan-related documents. A recent decision from the Court of Appeals for the Fifth...more
When I was 13 and I had my Bar Mitzvah, I plunked down about $2,000 in 1985 money for a state of the art Apple IIe with a monochrome monitor. One of the first pieces of software I bought was that top desktop publishing...more
When you get pulled over by the police while driving, the best way to handle is to be pleasant and not be argumentative. You listen to the officer as to why he pulled over. Being belligerent and non-cooperative will only lead...more
There are so many articles for plan sponsors (I’ve written quite a few) where they go on and on about what plan sponsors need for a successful 401(k) plan. Rather than go into a whole diatribe, here is a Reader’s Digest of...more
All ERISA plans need an ERISA bond that protects the plan from thefts of plan assets by plan fiduciaries. ERISA requires that every fiduciary of an employee benefit plan and every person who handles plan assets be bonded. ...more
Editor's Overview - As we have observed on other occasions, the ERISA class action plaintiffs' bar has, for several years now, honed in on 401(k) plan fiduciaries and their decisions to select and retain investment options...more
How Retirement Plan Providers Can Deal With The Fiduciary Rule Change. Adapt to this change. At its prime, Blockbuster Video had 9,000 stores and was actually bought by Viacom in 1994 for $8.4 billion. Then some...more
Unless they are involved in the retirement plan industry a plan sponsor must delegate much of their duties to retirement plan providers that may include third party administrators (TPAs), financial advisors, and ERISA...more
On July 3, 2013 the Employee Benefits Security Administration issued ERISA Advisory Opinion 2013-03A (the “AO”) to the Groom Law Group which had submitted a request on behalf of Principal Life Insurance Company (“Principal”)....more