Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Retirement plans’ sponsors and other fiduciaries associated with them got some reassuring news in early July when the U.S. Department of Labor stated in an advisory opinion that certain “revenue-sharing” fee payments by plan sponsors to their recordkeepers and other third-party administrators do not constitute plan assets for ERISA purposes. This means that service providers […]
Creditors of retirement plan participants sometimes try to tap into a participant’s supplementary benefits under various legal arrangements, including garnishment and domestic relations orders. If a plan administrator or adviser is faced with the prospect of a participant’s deferred compensation being assigned to a creditor, the administrator must be familiar with a number of complicated […]
A recent appeals court ruling may increase plan sponsors’ confidence about including and holding company stock in their retirement plans — especially those in the financial services industry. In White v. Marshall & Ilsley No. 11-2660, (7th Cir., April 19, 2013), the presumption-of-prudence defense again was upheld when retirement-plan participant plaintiffs appealed a 2011 district-court ruling, […]
Although many 401(k) plans offer participants loans, a statistic that plan sponsors don’t want to see is the number and size of those loans increasing. But some of them are seeing just that, according to Wells Fargo. A recent study by the banking company of fourth-quarter 2012 activity at the defined contribution plans it administers […]
Clear plan document terms in ERISA group health plans are the best defense against legal claims asserting broad equitable remedies, the U.S. Supreme Court reinforced in an April 16 decision. In its holding, the Court affirmed that equitable theories, such as make-whole, common fund, unjust enrichment and double-recovery doctrines should not be allowed to override […]
Amid historically low interest rates, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals’ recent affirmation of a retirement plan’s choice of discount rate for converting annuities into lump-sum payments to beneficiaries should reassure defined benefit plan sponsors facing similar challenges. In Dennison v. MONY Life Retirement Income Security Plan (No. 12-2407, 7th Cir., March 6, 2013), […]
Current and former 401(k) plan participants have sued Fidelity Investments on behalf of thousands of other plan participants and retirees to recoup account losses they say resulted from “self-dealing” by the huge asset manager. The case is worth plan sponsors’ attention because it closely resembles a widely watched 2012 ruling against Fidelity, Tussey v. ABB […]
A federal district court blocked an effort to force an ERISA health plan to pay secondary for an expensive specialty drug that was excluded from coverage because it wasn’t filled at an in-network provider as required by plan terms. The U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois rejected the plaintiff‘s argument that whenever Medicare covered a […]
There’s consternation about the future solvency of multiemployer plans and concerns about whether plan sponsors should expect higher insurance premiums as a result of three new reports from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. On Jan. 29, PBGC sent to Congress reports on the status of multiemployer pension plans it insures, the current effects of pension […]
Plan sponsors may take heart at a district court’s ruling supporting the interpretation of plan language by one of their own — but a partial dissent could spell more claims for equitable relief. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a ruling for the plaintiff in a surviving-spousal benefits suit and supported the defined […]