PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - SECURE 2.0 Act Relief for Plan Corrections
Historically, the IRS' Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) has provided employers structured options for correcting retirement plan failures. Under this framework, certain operational errors qualified for...more
The DOL recently updated the Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFCP). The VFCP encourages employers to voluntarily correct certain violations of ERISA to avoid DOL civil enforcement penalties....more
Starting March 17, 2025, the Employee Benefits Security Administration’s Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (“VFCP”) will have a “self-correction” option. Although the new option eliminates the need to wait for formal...more
The Department of Labor announced that its Employee Benefits Security Administration has updated its Voluntary Fiduciary Compliance Program, allowing employers more efficient ways to voluntarily correct compliance issues in...more
The Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFCP) has long been a source of reprieve to plan sponsors and fiduciaries from enforcement actions by the Department of Labor (DOL), by allowing the voluntary correction of a number...more
As announced in our previous HR Law Talk blog post, on January 15, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) published a much anticipated amended and restated version of the...more
On January 14, 2025, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) within the Department of Labor (DOL) updated its Voluntary Fiduciary Compliance Program (VFCP). The VFCP allows plan officials to correct certain...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a much awaited amendment to its Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFC Program). Notably, the amendment adds a self-correction feature for the delinquent transmittal of...more
The DOL updated its voluntary fiduciary correction program (“VFCP”) which was introduced over 20 years ago to allow plan sponsors to corrected enumerated fiduciary breaches. The amended VFCP now allows for self-correction of...more
The January Monthly Minute highlights a recent Texas court decision holding ESG investing violated ERISA and a new development in the J&J prescription drug case that found plaintiff lacked standing to sue, and also digs into...more
On January 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) announced significant updates to the VFCP. These changes, effective March 17, 2025, introduce a self-correction feature for...more
On January 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) released its long-awaited final rules regarding changes to the Voluntary Fiduciary Compliance Program (VFCP). The new...more
Section 305 of SECURE 2.0 added rules for self-correcting a new category of retirement plan errors under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (“ECPRS”). Specifically, Section 305 allows an “eligible inadvertent...more
Earlier this week, the IRS released Notice 2024-77, which provides much-anticipated guidance related to the handling of so-called “inadvertent benefit overpayments” from qualified retirement plans under the SECURE 2.0 Act. ...more
Administering a retirement plan is a complicated task fraught with potential missteps. Fortunately, employers are now able to self-correct most errors and thereby avoid the considerable time and expense of filing an...more
This post examines excess deferrals under non-governmental 457(b) plans, including the approved method for correcting them and the penalty for failing to correct them, to make the case for a change in IRS policy on correcting...more
The Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (“EPCRS”), as set forth in Revenue Procedure 2021-30, allows plan sponsors to correct “Qualification Failures,” which are defined as any plan document, operational, demographic...more
Employers that sponsor retirement plans continue to have a lot on their plate. With SECURE Act 2.0 requirements now in play, this legislation continues to add more and more to your (already) overflowing plate. However, as is...more
On February 7, 2024, the IRS announced the second phase of its Pre-Examination Retirement Compliance Program... Under this program, sponsors will be notified that their plan is selected for examination and will have 90 days...more
On this episode of Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion, host Brydon DeWitt discusses eligible inadvertent failures that may be self-corrected under SECURE 2.0 Act and limitations on self-correction. ...more
Errors in retirement plans happen even to the most well-intentioned plan sponsors. Several decades ago, the IRS published the first version of the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution Program (EPCRS), which outlines...more
Years ago, any volume submitter plan or non-standardized prototype plan would apply for its own determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Then one day, the IRS tried to cut back on their agent’s workload...more
The opportunity to self-correct mistakes in maintaining a retirement plan has been dramatically expanded by the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (“SECURE 2.0”); see our February 10 blog post for details. However, IRS interim guidance...more
Effective December 29, 2022, Section 305 of SECURE 2.0 expands the ability for plan sponsors to self-correct certain plan failures under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (“EPCRS”). Section 305 of SECURE 2.0...more
The IRS recently issued Notice 2023-43 providing new interim guidance for self-correction of plan errors. This guidance applies to corrections made prior to the anticipated issuance of revisions to the Employee Plans...more