As previously reported, the U.S. Department of Justice asked the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California not to decide whether to dismiss the lawsuit by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association maintaining that the CalSavers retirement program is preempted by ERISA until the Department decides whether to participate in the lawsuit on behalf of the United States.  In its August 2, 2019 filing the Department indicated that it would give the court…

Just a brief post to let you know that I will be presenting a webinar for the Western Pension and Benefits Council Governing Board titled Voluntary Closing Agreements–The Non-EPCRS Correction Program on August 21 at 10 am PST.  I will discuss fixing plan issues that do not qualify for correction under the Employee Plans Correction Resolution System (EPCRS) through the Employee Plans Voluntary Closing Agreement Program, including the advantages and disadvantages of closing agreements.  I will…

CalSavers, California’s mandated payroll deduction program for certain California employees who do not have access to retirement plans at work became effective July 1, 2019.  However, still pending is a lawsuit by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association to invalidate the law as preempted by ERISA.  See CalSavers Moves to Dismiss Amended Complaint Challenging Program under ERISA.  A motion to dismiss the amended complaint is awaiting a hearing.  However, interestingly, on August 2, 2019, the…

This post takes a deeper dive into the expansion of the self-correction program under EPCRS by reproducing my article from this month’s Compensation Planning Journal.  The article discusses the increase in user fees under the Voluntary Correction Program which caused the industry to push back on the cost and request expanded self-correction to ease the cost of correction.  It also discusses issues with the concept of self-correction and some proposed resolutions.  I hope you enjoy…

In 1989’s film Back to the Future II, Marty McFly rides a hoverboard (flying skateboard) to escape Griff Tannen and his gang of teenage thugs in the year 2015.  Well it’s 2019, and we still don’t have hoverboards to ride, however, thanks to the Department of Labor we now have mandatory electronic top hats. On June 17, 2019, the Department of Labor announced that effective August 16, 2019 final regulations require that all “top hat”…

On April 11, 2019, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer’s Association (HJTA) filed its amended complaint challenging the propriety of California’s new CalSavers retirement program after a federal district court dismissed its first complaint on March 28, 2019 but granted leave to amend the complaint due to the Court’s awareness of the importance of the case.  See HJTA Files Amended Complaint Challenging CalSavers Program, See also, CalSavers Saved from ERISA Preemption By District Court.  On…

By now you’ve probably read that the IRS has expanded the failures that can be self-corrected under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) as set forth in Rev. Proc. 2019-19 issued April 19, 2019.  This development comes on the heels of the IRS changing how user fees are determined under the Voluntary Correction Program (VCP) from a participant-based fee to an asset-based fee.  See, Plan Mistakes are Now More Costly to Correct.  The…