It may be an understatement to say that compliance with benefit plan laws and regulations is becoming increasingly more complicated. In my experience, the COVID era has brought about some of the widest-sweeping changes on the...more
Both the Department of Labor (DOL) and plaintiffs’ lawyers have taken an interest in retirement plans’ cybersecurity in recent years. Last year, the DOL issued guidance on the cybersecurity considerations plan fiduciaries...more
In January 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced that final regulations affecting how some ERISA plans process claims and appeals will apply beginning April 1, 2018. As explained below, the final regulations...more
In light of the recent settlement between the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and a health plan third-party administrator (TPA), plan fiduciaries and TPAs should re-examine, or even re-negotiate, portions of their current TPA...more
After much controversy and criticism, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a final conflict of interest rule on April 6th (the “Final Rule”) which expands the definition of a fiduciary for an “employee benefit plan,” as...more
On April 8, 2016, the Department of Labor (DOL) released the much anticipated final regulation to broaden the scope of fiduciary status under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal...more
What Plan Sponsors Need to Know Now - On April 5, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor released a new definition of what constitutes a fiduciary to a retirement plan. While the new guidance clarified that certain...more