It’s hard to believe that 2024 is well underway! That means it’s a perfect time to think about an issue that might get lost in the summertime and (dare I already say) year-end shuffles: fiduciary committees.

ERISA imposes fiduciary duties on those considered a fiduciary under an ERISA-covered plan. Generally, absent a delegation, the board

America’s cultural wars may be opening up a new front, and group health plans may be caught in the fray. Since the US Supreme Court decision in Dobbs ended almost fifty years of constitutional protection for abortion rights and gave states the authority to regulate abortion, lawmakers (or citizens) have either enacted new prohibitions on

The Internal Revenue Service recently announced its cost-of-living adjustments applicable to dollar limitations on benefits and contributions for retirement plans generally effective for Tax Year 2024 (see IRS Notice 2023-75). Most notably, the limitation on annual salary deferrals into a 401(k) or 403(b) plan will increase to $23,000, and the dollar threshold for highly

Baseball season has just started, and retirement plan auditing season will soon kick into high gear. Many plan sponsors don’t see the value of a good auditor; they just see the audit as a cost of doing business. That’s too bad because these days when a plan sponsor becomes aware of an operational problem in

The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0) provides welcome relief to private sector single employer sponsors of defined benefit pension plans (Pension Plan(s)). Effective for plan years beginning on and after January 1, 2024, SECURE 2.0 caps the variable rate premium paid by Pension Plan sponsors to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) at

Most Americans prefer not to pay more in income tax than absolutely required or to pay taxes any sooner than necessary.  This includes many retired individuals who do not need to tap into their employer-sponsored retirement plan benefits yet but are required to do so – and to pay taxes on those benefits – once

On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, and Division T of the Act contains legislation dubbed the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0).  SECURE 2.0 contains an important provision regarding the eligibility of part-time employees to participate in an employer’s 401(k) plan or ERISA-governed 403(b) plan. The fundamental principle

As group health plan sponsors, employers are responsible for ensuring compliance with the prescription drug data collection (RxDC) reporting requirements added to ERISA by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CAA).  Under ERISA section 725, enforced by the US Department of Labor (DOL), group health plans (not account-based plans, e.g., health reimbursement arrangements and health

For those with an eye on ERISA and its fiduciary rules, the past few years have caused whiplash when it comes to environmental, social, and corporate governance (“ESG”) investments in retirement plans.  With a new rule from the Department of Labor imminent, let’s review where we are, how we got here, and what’s next.

ERISA

A New York federal court recently held that a service provider for employer-sponsored retirement plans was not liable as a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) when it used participant information to encourage certain plan participants to roll over assets into its more expensive managed account program.  Carfora v. Teachers Ins. Annuity