A 401(k) plan and its administrators are defending the administrator’s decision to require a special valuation of former employees’ account values, given extraordinary market changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Under the terms of the plan at issue, when a former employee seeks a distribution of his or her plan account, the account is typically valued as of December 31 of the prior year.  The plan invests in a pooled investment account so the money…

Deadlines are a large part of employee benefit plan administration.  The past 12 – 18 months have contributed to potential confusion about standard deadlines and added new deadlines plan administrators will not want to overlook.  During this period, the IRS created a one-time window deadline, published extensions for some plans’ deadlines, and other deadlines were not extended but are rapidly approaching.  July and August 2020, bring the most immediate deadlines for plan administrators. In March,…

The United States Department of Labor (the “DOL”) recently issued a proposed rule on the fiduciary requirements under the federal pension law, ERISA, that apply to the selection and monitoring of environmental, social, and corporate governance (“ESG”) investments in retirement plans.  Under the proposed rule, which would be effective 60 days after it becomes finalized, retirement plan investment fiduciaries (e.g., investment committees for 401(k) and defined benefit pension plans), must apply a substantially heightened level…

A little more than one year ago, we reported on a settlement (Cassell et al. v. Vanderbilt University, et al.) involving the alleged wrongful use of personal information belonging to retirement plan participants, claimed to be “plan assets.” This year, similar claims have been made against Shell Oil Company in connection with its 401(k) plan. Retirement plan sponsors may begin seeing more of these claims and they might consider some strategies to head them off.…

As COVID-19 continues its upheaval of nearly all aspects of life, retirement plan administration included (see some of our prior discussions here, here, here and here), the Internal Revenue Service recently issued guidance providing additional relief for the sponsors of certain plans.  IRS Notice 2020-52 clarifies requirements for mid-year changes to a safe harbor 401(k) plan that only reduces contributions made on behalf of highly compensated employees (HCEs), and provides temporary relief…

Since March 27, 2020 when the CARES Act was signed into law, many questions have mounted related to implementing the retirement plan provisions.  Now, with roughly 3 months under our belts since the issuance of the Act and countless CARES Act distributions and loan suspensions processed, the IRS clarified several eligibility, administrative, and taxation reporting rules by issuing IRS Notice 2020-50.  The Notice provides safe harbors, a model certification, and information reporting codes.  It…

The IRS issued proposed regulations under Section 4960 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), which was added as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.   The proposed regulations published in the Federal Register on June 11, 2020, largely follow the IRS interim guidance under IRS Notice 2019-09. However, the IRS made some helpful changes in the proposed regulations which are briefly summarized below. By way of background, Section…