The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is temporarily suspending the IRS Prototype Opinion Letter Program for individual retirement accounts and individual retirement annuities (IRAs) effective March 14, 2022. As noted in Announcement 2022-6, the IRS will not be accepting applications for opinion letters on prototype traditional, Roth, and SIMPLE IRAs or SEP (including SARSEP) and SIMPLE IRA plans until further notice.
ML BeneBits
EXAMINING A RANGE OF EMPLOYEE BENEFITS
AND EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION ISSUES
AND EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION ISSUES
In the case of Texas Medical Ass'n, et al. v. US Department of Health and Human Services, et al., the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on February 23 invalidated portions of the second interim final rule (IFR) issued by the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury (the Departments) under the No Surprises Act.
The US Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced that it is seeking comment on the impact of climate change on retirement security and what actions, if any, the agency should take to protect retirement savings from such risks.
The US Department of Labor (DOL) issued a final regulation (Final Rule) on December 29, 2021, updating the 2021 Form 5500 to reflect certain statutory changes included in the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE Act). The Final Rule focuses primarily on changes to accommodate pooled employer plans (PEPs) and other defined contribution multiple employer plans (MEPs).
The Department of Labor (DOL) delivered a surprise holiday gift on December 21, 2021 to fiduciaries of participant-directed 401(k) plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), as amended—issuing a supplemental statement (Supplement) to a June 2020 Information Letter (Letter) regarding the use of private equity investments in investment options. The thrust of the Supplement is that fiduciaries should not read the Letter as endorsing or recommending private equity investments in such plans and should proceed with caution in the use of such investments in a participant-directed 401(k) plan.
The Department of Labor (Department) issued Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2021-03 (FAB) on December 30, 2021, announcing a temporary enforcement policy for group health plan service provider disclosures under ERISA Section 408(b)(2)(B).
Although variable annuity pension plan (VAPP) designs have been permissible for decades, they have not yet seen widespread adoption—particularly in the Taft-Hartley multiemployer plan space.
Recently, however, we have seen a trend of employers and unions (or existing multiemployer plan boards of trustees) agreeing to set up VAPPs as an alternative to the traditional multiemployer defined benefit plan design (hereafter, “Traditional DB Plan”).
At the end of each fiscal year, the US Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) compiles the monetary results it obtained through various initiatives meant to ensure compliance with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
While considering year-end tasks and planning for the upcoming year, qualified plan sponsors should think about whether they need to revise and/or reissue their summary plan descriptions (SPDs) in 2022.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul enacted an auto-IRA law, effective October 21, which requires certain New York employers to either offer their employees a qualified retirement plan or join the state-run IRA program. The new law amends the New York’s Secure Choice Savings Program, a voluntary IRA program that has been in place since 2018 and is run by the New York State Secure Choice Savings Program Board.