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 2021 (see IRS Notice 2020-79). Most notably, many of the retirement plan limitations, including the limitation on annual salary deferrals into a 401(k) or 403(b) plan, remain unchanged. The
defined benefit plan
North Carolina Court Awards $41 Thousand-Plus Penalty for Failure to Produce Documents Requested by Plan Participants
Section 104(b)(4) of ERISA provides that a plan administrator must respond to a written request for certain documents (including the plan documents and summary plan description) by a participant or beneficiary by providing the requested documents. Section 502(c)(1) of ERISA and Regulation § 2575.502(c)-1 provide that a plan administrator who fails to do so within…
First Crack in the Armor of the Segal Blend?
By Paul A. Friedman & Adam B. Cantor on
The Segal Group is the premier actuarial firm in the country providing services for hundreds of multi-employer pension funds. For almost 40 years it has used its own methodology, known as the “Segal Blend” to calculate employers’ withdrawal liability successfully without an adverse ruling by either a court or an arbitrator in hundreds of cases.…
Department of Labor Provides Guidance on Retirement Plan Obligations When Employees Return From Military Service
By Joshua Rafsky on
Posted in Uncategorized
The Department of Labor recently issued a fact sheet intended to help employers understand their retirement plan obligations under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (“USERRA”). The law provides that eligible employees that return to employment following qualified military service must be treated as though their military service was not a…
The IRS Doesn’t Disappoint…Again
As imagined by plan sponsors of closed defined benefit pension plans, the IRS issued Notice 2019-49, the fifth extension for an additional year of the temporary nondiscrimination relief for “closed” defined benefit pension plans originally announced by the IRS during 2014. The extended relief applies to plan years beginning before 2021 for those “closed”…
How Multiemployer Pension Plans Continue To Extract More From Contributing Employers Than What They Bargained For
Contributing employers to multiemployer pension plans (“MEPPs”) are commonly surprised that their obligations to such a plan can extend well beyond the contributions required under a collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) negotiated with a union. The most significant extra-contractual obligation is withdrawal liability, a statutory exit fee imposed on employers that leave a plan that has…
Required Minimum Distributions
By Paul A. Friedman on
Posted in Defined Benefit Plans, DOL, EBSA, ERISA, IRS, Required Minimum Distributions, Retirement plans
The aging of the baby boomer generation has increased the level of scrutiny with which the Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”) will review the efforts of pension plans to locate missing plan participants who did not receive reported benefits. The focus of the EBSA which began with a review of the efforts…
The Saga Continues for Multi-Employer Pension Funds
This is another blog on our monitoring the status of defined benefit multi-employer pension funds. Since this author last wrote to you, it has been revealed that the Central States Pension Fund is scheduled to become insolvent sometime in 2025. Worse yet, it has been announced that the multi-employer fund of the Pension Benefit Guaranty…
The IRS Doesn’t Disappoint
As anticipated by plan sponsors of closed defined benefit pension plans, the IRS issued Notice 2018-69, the fourth extension for an additional year of the temporary nondiscrimination relief for “closed” defined benefit pension plans originally announced by the IRS during 2014. The extended relief applies to plan years beginning before 2020 for those “closed” plans…