Plan for Success: Navigating Pension De-Risking
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
Football and plan corrections are often on my mind this time of the year. As the Bengals kick off their season, late summer is also the time when we receive an influx of questions from plan sponsors regarding correcting...more
I n the squared circle of the retirement plan world, plan sponsors are the promoters, the bookers, and, at times, they feel like the main-event talent. But if there’s one piece of advice I’ve given more than any other over...more
Plan administrators and counsel should review key issues with respect to employee benefit plans and executive compensation arrangements, confirm actions to be taken before the end of 2025, and focus on what to expect for...more
For calendar-year employee benefit plans, the extended deadline for filing the 2024 Forms 5500 is coming up on October 15, 2025. Accordingly, plan sponsors filing under the extended deadline will be reviewing draft Forms 5500...more
One of my favorite movie scenes is from Donnie Brasco. You’ve got Al Pacino’s character, Lefty, leading his crew around Brooklyn, smashing open city parking meters with sledgehammers for a few dollars in dimes. The visual is...more
When it comes to retirement plan litigation, the common theme I’ve noticed over the years is that lawsuits rarely die in the early rounds. A fiduciary’s best hope is to win on summary judgment or at trial, but a motion to...more
A proposed class action lawsuit filed against Empower last month highlights the importance for 401(k) plan fiduciaries to carefully negotiate their services agreements with recordkeepers and other services providers. The...more
One of my favorite movie scenes in Donnie Brasco is when Lefty and the crew bust open city parking meters for dimes because they’ve got to make their weekly nut. Sometimes, I feel like ERISA litigation is the same thing,...more
A new Empower survey has made some waves in the retirement plan industry. According to their July 2025 survey, a striking 68% of advisors already use private market investments—things like private equity, private credit, and...more
On July 14, 2025, we published a detailed Legal Update describing the state of the law with respect to the ongoing wave of ERISA forfeiture lawsuits. This Legal Update analyzes the material developments that we have seen over...more
The Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) is once again carrying water for the annuity industry, this time urging the Department of Labor to retain a regulatory safe harbor that’s already obsolete. The safe harbor in question,...more
The August Monthly Minute brings you the latest guidance on ERISA retirement plan investment in alternative assets and highlights a recent ruling in mental health parity nonquantitative treatment limitation (NQTL) litigation....more
A recently filed lawsuit against Northwestern University and its health plan fiduciaries raises novel claims that could be problematic for employers that offer multiple medical benefit options, if the suit gains traction. The...more
Department of Labor (DOL) watchers have experienced regulatory whiplash in recent years. During the Biden administration, for example, the DOL issued Compliance Assistance Release (CAR) No. 2022-01, which flouted its...more
What can employers do with non-vested employer contributions? Under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”), employers may require an employee to work for a set number of years before any company...more
I t was 2001 when Aerosmith dropped Just Push Play, and while it was no Rocks or Toys in the Attic, it packed a punch. That title track? A distorted, energetic anthem about dropping the hesitation and just going forward. No...more
The US Department of Labor (DOL) has withdrawn prior guidance from 2023 supporting racial equity programs aimed at increasing racial diversity in a plan’s asset manager pool. That prior guidance had provided comfort to plan...more
On August 7, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order titled Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors. The directive marks a significant policy shift by encouraging regulators to make it easier...more
There are always plenty of new retirement plan investment performance and fee cases, and it’s hard for a plan sponsor, even one that is doing everything properly, to be assured that it won’t be the target of a lawsuit....more
Sometimes, in the strange world of ERISA litigation, you get a surprise. And in Hutchins v. Hewlett Packard, we got one: the Department of Labor, yes, that DOL, the one whose name alone strikes fear into the heart of many...more
Tom Cruise doesn’t age, and apparently neither do the problems that plague 401(k) plan sponsors. The plotlines may change—market volatility, regulation updates, SECURE 2.0—but one thing remains constant: fiduciary liability...more
On July 29, 2025, the Department of Labor (the “DOL”) published limited interpretive guidance regarding pooled employer plans, or “PEPs,” in the Federal Register (the “New Guidance”). Although PEPs are available to all sizes...more
You can cut corners in business. You can play fast and loose with your vendor contracts. You can even get away with sloppy recordkeeping—at least for a while. But when you mess with employee 401(k) contributions, you’re not...more
On August 7, the White House issued an Executive Order (EO) aimed at broadening Americans’ access to alternative asset investments within employer-sponsored defined-contribution retirement plans, such as 401(k) plans....more
After six long years of litigation, Intel’s 401(k) plan design just got a big legal endorsement. A three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit dismissed a lawsuit filed by plan participants who claimed that including hedge funds...more