At least four lawsuits have recently been filed against employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) fiduciaries alleging a failure to prudently invest cash held in the ESOP trust. While scrutiny of investments in company stock has...more
3/27/2025
/ Corporate Governance ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Stock Purchase Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
ESOP ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Management ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Retirement Plan ,
Risk Management
The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) mandates that group health plans and health insurance issuers that offer mental health or substance use disorder (MH/SUD) benefits must provide such benefits...more
Although the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0) was enacted nearly two years ago, and many of its changes have already been implemented, some SECURE 2.0 provisions have yet to take effect. This article provides an overview...more
11/20/2024
/ 401k ,
403(b) Plans ,
Automatic Enrollment ,
Deadlines ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employees ,
Full-Time Employees ,
IRS ,
Part-Time Employees ,
Retirement ,
Retirement Plan ,
SECURE Act
Administering a retirement plan is a complicated task fraught with potential missteps. Fortunately, employers are now able to self-correct most errors and thereby avoid the considerable time and expense of filing an...more
A distribution policy is a helpful tool for ESOP companies to comply with distribution requirements while retaining maximum flexibility. In a prior article, we reviewed the rules governing ESOP distributions. In this article,...more
Following up on our prior blog posts (here and here) regarding employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) generally for constructions companies, as well specific issues for consideration, this blog post evaluates the pros and...more
Following up on our first blog post about employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) for construction companies, this post addresses surety bond requirements as well as the way in which ESOPs can incentivize employees and...more
In recent years, a growing number of construction companies have established employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). The interest in an ESOP is often generated by the need for an exit strategy for one or more of the owners of...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently published Notice 2024-2, which provides guidance on several sections of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. This article highlights some of the more significant changes affecting retirement...more
1/10/2024
/ 401k ,
403(b) Plans ,
Automatic Enrollment ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Employee Benefits ,
IRS ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Retirement Plan ,
Safe Harbors ,
SECURE Act ,
U.S. Treasury
The budding cannabis industry, despite its rapid growth and gradual acceptance in recent years, still faces a major sustainability challenge: Cannabis businesses cannot deduct most ordinary business expenses. Under Internal...more
1/9/2024
/ Business Expenses ,
Business Operations ,
Business Ownership ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
ESOP ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Tax Credits ,
Tax Deductions ,
Tax Liability ,
Taxation
The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 sets forth a number of changes affecting retirement plans that go into effect over several years. This article focuses on key changes for 2024 that may be implemented....more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced a two-year administrative transition period that delays until 2026 the new rule that catch-up contributions made by certain higher‑income participants in 401(k), 403(b), and...more
8/29/2023
/ Comment Period ,
Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Defined Contribution Plans ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Executive Compensation ,
IRS ,
New Rules ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Roth IRA ,
SECURE Act ,
U.S. Treasury
The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 was enacted at the end of last year as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. The act sets forth a number of changes affecting retirement plans that go into effect over several years....more
1/11/2023
/ 401k ,
403(b) Plans ,
Collective Investment Schemes ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employees ,
Employer Contributions ,
EPCRS ,
Hardship Distributions ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
New Legislation ,
Overpayment ,
QLAC ,
Required Minimum Distributions ,
Retirement ,
Retirement Plan ,
SECURE Act ,
Self-Correction Programs
In response to the continued proliferation of lawsuits against retirement plan fiduciaries, fiduciary liability insurers are raising rates, limiting coverage, and expanding their due diligence of fiduciary processes...more
As costly class action retirement plan litigation under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) proliferates, mandatory individual arbitration has become an increasingly appealing alternative for certain benefit...more
The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury, and the Office of Personnel Management have issued "Requirements Related to Surprise Billing; Part I," an interim final rule to implement the No...more
7/9/2021
/ Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Cost-Sharing ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance ,
Interim Final Rules (IFR) ,
New Rules ,
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) ,
Out of Network Provider ,
Physicians ,
Surprise Medical Bills ,
U.S. Treasury
In Notice 2021-31, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provides broad guidance in a question-and-answer format on the application of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) regarding premium assistance under the...more
6/2/2021
/ American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
COBRA ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employees ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
IRS ,
Notice Requirements ,
Premium Subsidies ,
Termination Clauses
Group health plans and insurers have been required since 2008 to ensure that any “nonquantitative treatment limitations” (NQTLs) imposed on mental health or substance use disorder (MH/SUD) benefits are comparable and no more...more
5/19/2021
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Compliance ,
Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
IRS ,
Mental Health ,
Noncompliance ,
NQTLs ,
State Legislatures ,
State Regulators ,
Substance Abuse
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has published Notice 2021-26 to provide answers regarding the taxability of benefits received in 2021 and 2022 under a dependent care assistance program (DCAP) that permits carryovers or...more
5/13/2021
/ Cafeteria Plans ,
Carryover Basis ,
Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Dependent Care Assistance Program (DCAP) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Flexible Spending Accounts ,
Grace Period ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
Tax Code
In EBSA Disaster Relief Notice 2021-01, the Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a critical interpretation of prior guidance that extended certain deadlines for employee benefit plans, participants, and beneficiaries due to...more
In Notice 2021-15, the IRS provides many answers to questions regarding the temporary special rules introduced as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA) for health flexible spending accounts (health FSAs) and...more
3/2/2021
/ Cafeteria Plans ,
Carry-Over Basis ,
COBRA ,
Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Dependent Care Assistance Program (DCAP) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Flexible Spending Accounts ,
Grace Period ,
IRS
In EBSA Disaster Relief Notice 2021-01, the Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a critical interpretation of prior guidance that extended certain deadlines for employee benefit plans, participants, and beneficiaries due to...more
In response to ongoing pleas for guidance, the Department of Labor (DOL) has published an informal outline expressing its views on how retirement plan administrators should be addressing missing or unresponsive participants....more
The recently enacted COVID-19 Related Tax Relief Act of 2020 and the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020, both of which are part of the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021,” includes the following...more
1/4/2021
/ Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
CARES Act ,
Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
IRS ,
New Legislation ,
Relief Measures ,
Retirement Plan ,
Trump Administration
The president has signed into law the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020, which includes several temporary special rules aimed at minimizing forfeitures and increasing the utility of health and dependent...more
12/30/2020
/ Carryover Basis ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employees ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Flexible Spending Accounts ,
IRS ,
Relief Measures ,
Temporary Regulations ,
Trump Administration