Just one month ago the U.S. Department of Labor released its long awaited final rule re-defining who is considered a “fiduciary” of an employee benefit plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code (the Code). The final rule (which can be found here) targets those that give
ERISA Claims Procedures For Disability Benefits To Get An ACA Make Over
By Joseph J. Lazzarotti on
The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) of the Federal Department of Labor plans to publish on November 18, 2015, new claims procedures for adjudicating disability benefits designed to enhance existing procedures for those benefits under Section 503 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). EBSA’s goal is to apply to disability benefits many of…
ACA Auto-enrollment Requirement Repealed
Since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), larger employers have wondered about an auto-enrollment provision that the ACA added to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Under that provision, employers that are subject to the FLSA and which employed more than 200 full-time employees would have been required to automatically enroll new full-time…
When a Deferred Compensation Plan Qualifies for “Top-Hat” Plan Status under ERISA
In a recent decision, Tolbert v. RBC Capital Markets Corp., _________ (S.D. Texas April 28, 2015), the district court wrestled with the question of how to determine whether a deferred compensation plan was a “top-hat” plan exempt from many of the substantive requirements of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”).
The Fifth Circuit previously…
THE AUDIT QUALITY REPORT FOR BENEFIT PLANS IS IN AND THE DOL IS NOT HAPPY
By Jackson Lewis P.C. on
The DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”) recently completed its report on the quality of audit work performed on employee benefit plans by independent qualified public accountants (“IQPA”) and was not pleased with the results. EBSA reviewed a sample of the 81,000 audits completed as a part of each plan’s Annual Report/Form 5500 filing requirement…