PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Forfeitures Under Fire
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Navigating Fiduciary Responsibilities in a Tide-Turning ESG Era
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Big Changes to Catch-Up Contributions in 2025
How ERISA Litigators Strengthen Plan Compliance and Risk Management: One-on-One with Jeb Gerth
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Good News for the ACA in 2025
#WorkforceWednesday®: New DOL Guidance - ERISA Plan Cybersecurity Update - Employment Law This Week®
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - New IRS Guidance on SECURE 2.0 Act Student Loan Employer Contributions
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Understanding Lifetime Income Products
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Trends in Recordkeeper Consolidation and Due Diligence
Long-Term Part-Time Employee Eligibility Rules Now in Effect — Troutman Pepper Podcast
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - What the J&J Case Means for Plan Administrators
What Can A Tax Attorney Do For You? A Podcast With Janathan Allen
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Understanding Fees in Retirement Planning
The No Surprises Act: A Cost Saving Opportunity for Employer Plan Sponsors
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - ESG Investing by Retirement Plans
Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation: Getting Ready for 2024 – Top-Hat Plans — Special Edition Podcast
Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation: Getting Ready for 2024 - Health and Welfare Plan Developments — Special Edition Podcast
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Auto-Portability: A New Way to Keep Retirement Savings Growing
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - IRS 2024 Health Plan Affordability Threshold May Put Some at Risk
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - SECURE 2.0 Act Relief for Plan Corrections
Under SECURE 2.0, plan sponsors were granted discretion to determine whether or not the plan would recoup "inadvertent benefit overpayments." However, SECURE 2.0, did not define the term, leaving implementation of the new...more
On Jan. 15, 2025, the Department of Labor (DOL) published updates to its Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFCP) to allow certain delinquent participant contributions, delinquent loan repayments and improper loans to be...more
The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 requires certain 401(k) and 403(b) plans to include automatic enrollment and escalation features for the first plan year beginning after December 31, 2024, meaning that for those plans with a...more
The SECURE 2.0 Act made it easier for retirement plan sponsors to correct automatic enrollment errors. As a policy matter, Congress strongly supports automatic enrollment provisions in retirement plans, and making it easier...more
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
On February 7, 2024, the IRS announced it has started the second phase of the Pre-Examination Retirement Plan Compliance Program pilot. (IRS Employee Plans News, February 7, 2024) Original Program Pilot - The initial...more
The Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (“EPCRS”), as set forth in Revenue Procedure 2021-30, allows plan sponsors to correct “Qualification Failures,” which are defined as any plan document, operational, demographic...more
The Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Department of Labor recently issued guidance on various aspects of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, commonly referred to as SECURE 2.0. Below is a summary of key provisions...more
A question that almost always arises when we consult on correcting retirement plan errors is, “Can we use the DOL (Department of Labor) calculator to determine earnings?” Compared to the alternatives, the DOL calculator...more
The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0) significantly changes the legal and administrative compliance landscape for U.S. retirement plans. Foley & Lardner LLP is authoring a series of articles that take a “deep dive” into key...more
Errors in retirement plans happen even to the most well-intentioned plan sponsors. Several decades ago, the IRS published the first version of the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution Program (EPCRS), which outlines...more
There has never been a better time for plan sponsors to prioritize reviewing and self-correcting eligible plan failures. SECURE 2.0, attached to the 2022 year-end Consolidated Appropriations Act, expands retirement savings...more
The self-correction of retirement plan operational failures under IRS correction principles has been conditioned upon a plan sponsor’s establishment of compliance practices and procedures since the creation of the Employee...more
The IRS recently issued Notice 2023-43 (Notice) to provide interim guidance on Section 305 of SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0), which significantly expanded self-correction under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution...more
The Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) allows employers to correct errors involving the maintenance and operation of tax-qualified retirement plans. Depending on the severity...more
Recently issued Notice 2023-43 provides interim guidance on certain changes to the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) made by the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. In particular, the notice addresses how plan sponsors...more
Since 1998 the Internal Revenue Services (the “IRS”) has had a comprehensive employees plans correction program with three components: self-correction (SCP), voluntary correction with IRS approval including related user fee...more
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...more
The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0), the follow-up legislation to the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (now known as SECURE 1.0) (previously discussed here and here), includes many...more
Every six years, all preapproved defined contribution retirement plans (such as 401(k) plans) must be restated in new plan documents that have fresh approval from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The deadline to adopt the...more
Synopsis: On June 3, 2022, the IRS announced the launch of a “pre-examination” compliance program. Under the new program, the IRS sends letters to plan sponsors about an upcoming examination of their retirement plan or plans....more
Dear Plan Sponsor - Have you received a letter from the IRS with respect to your retirement plan? If so (or if not, but you want to be prepared in the event you do receive “the letter”), read on....more
On June 3, 2022, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced a new pilot program aimed at qualified retirement plan compliance. Pursuant to the program, the IRS will issue a letter to the plan administrator which provides a...more
Earlier this month, the IRS announced a new pilot program under which retirement plan sponsors will be given 90-days notice that their plan has been selected for examination which they may be able to largely avoid by taking...more
Retirement plan sponsors should be aware of a new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) pilot program, which permits plan sponsors to conduct a pre-examination “check-up” of retirement plan administration before the IRS begins a...more