PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Multiemployer Plans
A recent case from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Local No. 499, Board of Trustees of Shopmen's Pension Plan v. Art Iron, Inc., et al., 177 F. 4th 923 (6th Cir. 2024), clarifies a significant legal...more
With a multitude of questions surrounding implementation and administration, late on a summer Friday afternoon, the IRS issued Notice 2023-62 (Notice), providing Plan Sponsors with a transition period until 2026 to implement...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has proposed regulations to clarify the permissible uses of plan forfeitures in qualified retirement plans. This memo provides insight into: (1) types of benefit forfeitures permitted in...more
On February 24th, the Employee Benefits Security Administration, Internal Revenue Service, Treasury, and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (together, “the Agencies”) released Final forms revisions and Final Rules related...more
It seemed like a good idea at the time, replacing Matt Hutcheson as the fiduciary of an open multiple employer plan (MEP). Within a few weeks including conversations with adopting employers with missing money, I realized that...more
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) provided relief from certain annual notice and funding requirements to multiemployer plans reeling from COVID-19–related investment and experience losses. IRS Notice 2021-57, issued on...more
Presented below is our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for the week of July 5, 2021 – July 9, 2021... July 6, 2021: The IRS—in conjunction with the US Department of...more
The Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2021 was signed into law on December 27, 2020 and is an impressive 5,593 pages. According to the Senate Historical Office, the Act is the longest bill ever passed by Congress. Buried...more
The beauty of the retirement plan business is that it isn't static, it's constantly changing. One of the reasons that it constantly changes is changes in the Internal Revenue Code, ERISA, and regulations. The SECURE Act is...more
IRA providers were concerned with not being able to “stop the presses” when it came to notices being provided in January to IRA owners regarding the need to take 2020 minimum required distributions (“MRDs”)....more
The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the SECURE Act), signed into law on Dec. 20, 2019, will have a wide-ranging impact on tax-qualified retirement plans and individual retirement accounts,...more
On December 20, 2019, the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the “SECURE Act”) was signed into law. The SECURE Act implements new rules for creating and maintaining retirement plans. Plan...more
Editor's Overview - Happy New Year. We wrap-up 2019 with an article that reflects on significant developments in ERISA litigation during 2019, and takes a look at what's on the horizon for 2020. The courts (at all levels)...more
We interrupt our usual Benefits Dial programming – to take a closer look at developments affecting multiple employer plans (MEPs) as part of our series of posts on the recently enacted benefit plan legislation, including the...more
Since our March, 2019 alert on retirement plan guidance and compliance trends, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) have been quite busy issuing further waves of new guidance impacting...more
Some Hard Truths About The Retirement Plan Business. The truth, the hard truth. What makes me a very unpopular person in the retirement plan business and synagogue is that I'm very opinionated and I like to call it...more
On August 31, 2018, President Trump issued an Executive Order on “Strengthening Retirement Security in America.” The Executive Order is intended to set the policy for the Department of Labor (DOL) and the IRS in three...more
The two-year budget bill passed by Congress and signed by the President in the early morning hours of February 9, 2018—entitled the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (the “Budget Act”)—not only funded the federal government for...more
The Internal Revenue Service updated its mortality tables under final regulations which are generally applicable on January 1, 2018 and did not delay the implementation of the mortality tables because the update was mandated...more
For many months, we have been speculating about how the results of the 2016 presidential election would impact employee benefits policy going forward. Now that Donald Trump has won the election and Republicans have secured a...more
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published on July 1, 2016, an interim final rule adjusting the civil monetary penalties that it can enforce. These adjustments are the result of the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation...more
On October 21, 2015, in Information Release 2015-118, the IRS announced cost-of-living adjustments to various dollar limitations under the Internal Revenue Code (the "Code") for pension plans and other related items for the...more
On Sept. 25, 2015, the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Plan (Central States), submitted to the Department of the Treasury a plan for reducing benefits under the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014...more
Retirement Plans - IRS Issues Guidance on Benefit Suspension Voting under MPRA - As we have written in prior alerts, the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA) permits trustees of financially troubled...more
On June 17, 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) released several regulatory measures implementing the multiemployer pension plan amendments that were enacted in...more