The Portman-Cardin Bill, the Retirement Security and Savings Act – 2019 introduces sweeping changes to 403(b) plans by expanding their investment universe. These changes, however, also required modification to the Securities Laws otherwise applicable to 403(b) plans in order for them to work. A few critical issues have gone unanswered in the legislation, and there are a number of transition issues which we will have to be addressed. Technically, the Act expands 403(b) custodial account…

For all the noisy support being generated for the changes to Multiple Employer Plan arrangements in RESA and SECURE, little notice is being given to the provisions which are likely to have a much more meaningful impact on the ability for smaller plans to obtain the advantages of scale: the rules permitting the “Combined Annual Report for Groups of Plans.” These rules are based upon old DOL regulations called “Group Insurance Arrangements (or “GIAs) for…

One of the more curious results of the failure of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 to amend 403(b)(11) to provide for the same hardship relief that was granted to 401(k) plans is that the “hardship” distribution of 403(b) QNECs and QMACs aren’t really hardship distributions. This has a very real practical and operational effect. The IRS describe the rule  well in its preamble to their proposed regulation on the new hardship distribution rule: “Section…

This link is to the TAG Resources’ comment to the proposed MEP regulation which was filed with the DOL last week. The comment letter addresses the DOL’s main concern in initially prohibiting non-PEO commercial enterprises from becoming MEP sponsors. The Department is concerned that allowing any commercial enterprise to sponsor a MEP  would turn ERISA into a purely “commercial” statute; that without the sort of employment sort of relationships that PEOs brings the table, ERISA…

The DOL Advisory Opinion 2018-01 on the Retirement Clearinghouse shows the challenges presented by auto-portability in general, and specifically in the use of these types of IRA programs to accomplish it. The specific program, as described in the Advisory Opinion sets up a series of automated transfers of those “small amounts” forced out from retirement plans and into IRAs.  Ultimately, the program’s goal appears to be to prevent leakage of those small amounts by using…

The key to the DOL’s proposed MEP regulation is not so much the helpful and appropriate hemming in of the “commonality and control” requirements (those rules will apply only to group or association MEPs); nor is it that certain PEOs can generally be “employers” when acting indirectly on behalf of their clients in sponsoring a MEP; nor is it in the likewise helpful notion that participating employers are not co-sponsors (though they still retain certain…

One of the key  EBSA National Enforcement Projects (that is, a project driven by the national, not the regional, EBSA offices) is the “Plan Investment Conflicts Project.” You’ll hear DOL staff refer to it as the PIC project, and many of you have already run into it-maybe even without knowing it. It is the “next generation” of fiduciary compliance programs that the DOL has developed over the years, with this one building on those past…