Conversation with Former SEC Chief Economist Dr. Jessica Wachter on Investment Management Rulemaking at the Commission – PE Pathways
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Forfeitures Under Fire
5 Key Takeaways | IRS Final RMD Rules & Proposed Regulations to Address SECURE 2.0 Act Issues
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - New IRS Guidance on SECURE 2.0 Act Student Loan Employer Contributions
Long-Term Part-Time Employee Eligibility Rules Now in Effect — Troutman Pepper Podcast
What Can A Tax Attorney Do For You? A Podcast With Janathan Allen
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Auto-Portability: A New Way to Keep Retirement Savings Growing
#WorkforceWednesday: SECURE Act 2.0 - What 401(k) Plan Sponsors Need to Know - Employment Law This Week®
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Plan Administrators’ 2022 Year-End Checklist
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Court Decisions Impacting Plan Sponsors and Fiduciaries
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Helping Employers Address the Gender Gap in Retirement Savings
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Millennials, Boomers and Retirement Planning
The Form 5500: What All Employers and Plan Administrators Need to Know and How to Avoid Costly Fines
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Cryptocurrency in 401(k) Plans
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - What Constitutes Plan Assets Under ERISA?
2022 Resolutions: What Healthcare Practices Need To Tackle In the New Year
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Cautionary Tales for Preapproved Plan Documents
DOL Clarifies Timing of Lifetime Income Disclosures in Benefit Statements
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Back to the Future: SECURE Act and SECURE Act 2.0
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Payroll Integration for Plan Sponsors
One of my favorite sayings is: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” To me, it’s a reminder that even when we mean well, things don’t always turn out the way we hoped....more
The end of the year is fast approaching. Before calendars fill up too much with parties and PTO, now is a good time to take stock of year-end notice requirements for plan sponsors. As a quick reference, included below are...more
Employers who sponsor retirement plans for their employees face annual reporting requirements that may involve significant expenses. One of these is the requirement that a plan be audited annually by an independent qualified...more
When markets go south, participants fly for safety. I’m a fan of dollar cost averaging, but that’s just me and my situation as a 50-year-old with 20 years left to maybe retire....more
The problem with offering participants direction of investments is participants themselves. As a whole, they make poor investment decisions and exhibit poor timing. So that is just another reason why Bitcoin and 401(k) plans...more
Following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Hughes v. Northwestern University, courts around the country continue to articulate the pleading requirements for a breach of duty of prudence claim under the Employee Retirement...more
The federal Thrift Savings Plan will allow participants to allocate some of their assets through a self-directed brokerage account (SDBA) this summer....more
On January 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down an important decision affecting plan fiduciaries who select investment options available to participants in a self-directed employee retirement plan (such as a 401(k)...more
On January 24, 2022, in a rare, unanimous 8-0 decision (Justice Barrett recused herself from the case), the Supreme Court of the United States (the “Supreme Court”) vacated a Seventh Circuit affirmation of the dismissal of...more
In Hughes v. Northwestern University, current and former participants in Northwestern University's defined-contribution retirement plans filed litigation on behalf of the plans' participants asserting that the University, its...more
Just this month, the Supreme Court issued its much anticipated decision in Northwestern University, the first time the Court has been called upon to examine a lawsuit alleging that a 401(k) plan’s investment and fees were...more
KEY TAKEAWAYS - ..Plan fiduciaries have a duty of prudence to independently evaluate on an ongoing basis investments offered in a plan’s menu of options and remove any imprudent ones. ..Plan participants’ ultimate...more
In a unanimous decision that should serve as a wakeup call to those administrating employee retirement plans, the Supreme Court just reaffirmed and highlighted the ongoing duty of ERISA plan fiduciaries to monitor investment...more
In the good old days of participant-directed 401(k) plans, a good chunk of financial advisors did very little work for the plans that they advised. Many of them sat back, collected their trail or asset-based fee, and maybe...more
A character in This Is Spinal Tap said it best: “there is a fine line between being clever and being stupid.”...more
Less is more, I believe that. As an attorney in an occupation where most attorneys charge by the hour and believe more is more, I am an outlier. ...more
A recent survey shows that more participants are more positive this year about meeting their retirement objectives than last year. This may be due in part to a renewed commitment to save more by almost half of those surveyed....more
The beauty of fee disclosure regulations and technological breakthroughs is that 401(k) fees have been sliding. Even 9 years after the promulgations of the fee disclosure regulations, it’s still sliding....more
When I was younger, I was a pessimist. Everything to me, like a bad grade in Civil Procedure I was the end of the world and I realized eventually, that it wasn’t. I learned optimism is easier to manage than pessimism....more
The Godfather Rules And Your 401(k) Plan - Two of my favorite movies of all time are The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. I’m even a fan of The Godfather Part III, despite some of the unwarranted criticism. It’s more...more
Kiplinger conducted a poll that showed that plan participants did raid their retirement plan accounts because of COVID. ...more
In life, giving people a wide variety of choices is a good thing. However, when it comes to daily valued 401(k) plans, too many choices isn’t a good thing. It sounds counter-intuitive, but too many choices offered to plan...more
A study from T. Rowe Price about 401(k) plan participants had some results that should really not shock anyone. The study showed that people who participate in 401(k) plans are more confident about their financial futures...more
Advisors ask me all the time of the role of education in participant-directed 401(k) plans. Participant directed 401(k) plans that are governed under ERISA §404(c) offer the plan sponsors liability protection based on a...more
....One More Thing For Plan Providers, Some points to ponder. When Steve Jobs would lead an Apple press conference, he would always end it with "one more thing," which was an important announcement of a new Apple product....more