Great Women in Compliance: The Mind at Work with Lynette Buebird
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Cost, Care and Captives: A Mid-Size Employer’s Guide to Benefit Trends
Regulatory Rollback: Legal Challenges and Opportunities in Earned-Wage Access — Payments Pros – The Payments Law Podcast
Regulatory Rollback: Legal Challenges and Opportunities in Earned-Wage Access — The Consumer Finance Podcast
FTC and Florida Focus on Non-Competes, SCOTUS to Rule on Pension Withdrawal Liability - #WorkforceWednesday® - Employment Law This Week®
What the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Means for Employers - #WorkforceWednesday® - Employment Law This Week®
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) Explained
Taking the Pulse, A Health Care and Life Sciences Video Podcast | Episode 241: Fighting Nurse Burnout with Data-Driven Innovation with Dr. Ecoee Rooney of Indicator Sciences
Is the Four-Day Workweek Really a Benefit? What’s the Tea in L&E?
Work this Way: An Employment Law Video Podcast | Episode 50: Creating a Competitive Advantage Through Employee Benefits with Connor Shaw of Gallagher
Regulatory Ramblings: Episode 72 - Cultural Roots, Belonging, and the Fear of Change: What’s Next for Inclusion?
Summer Strategies for Work Success
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Gag Clause Prohibitions
Crafting Effective Flexible Leave Policies for Employers
Ampliación del fuero de paternidad
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Forfeitures Under Fire
Coffee Badging: Mastering the Art of Office Presence — Hiring to Firing Podcast
Navigating Legal Strategies for Covering GLP-1s in Self-Insured Medical Plans — Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Podcast
Exploring Carried Interest in Upper Tier Private Equity Structures — PE Pathways
Daily Compliance News: May 15, 2025, The Downfall in Davos Edition
Background - In a wave of class-action litigation beginning around 2023, plaintiffs have alleged violations of fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and prohibited transaction rules in...more
ERISA is filled with traps for the unwary. Some are complex, hiding in layers of regulatory nuance. Others are deceptively simple—like plan forfeitures. Yes, I’m talking about those dollars left behind when participants fail...more
In Hutchins v. HP Inc., the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed – with prejudice – the plaintiff's claims challenging the use of forfeited employer 401(k) contributions. This is the latest...more
The most recent wave of ERISA litigation is focused on the use of plan forfeitures in 401(k) plans, with the newest case, Armenta v. WillScot Mobile Mini Holdings Corp. being filed just last week. Although, for years, many...more
The Wagner Law Group continues to monitor the ongoing flood of “forfeiture” litigation. This alert is our seventh reporting on and analyzing the nature of the claims raised by plaintiffs, the defenses asserted against them,...more
With 2024 drawing to a close, employers should review any actions needed before year-end with respect to their benefit plans, as well as some upcoming deadlines that may require advance planning. As the adage attributed to...more
On September 19, 2024, the Southern District of California dismissed claims brought by a 401(k) plan participant against Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. regarding the use of forfeitures to offset future employer contributions. ...more
On behalf of the ESOPs, Benefits & Compensation team, we hope your Summer is off to a great start. In the time of family vacations and out-of-office replies, the pace of employee benefits changes—both large and small—remains...more
401(k) plan sponsors are seeing a string of lawsuits challenging their use of forfeitures to offset matching contributions. In the most recent suit, plaintiffs claimed that a 401(k) plan sponsor violated its fiduciary duties...more
A federal district court recently granted a motion to dismiss claims that defined contribution plan fiduciaries breached their fiduciary duties of loyalty and prudence, and violated ERISA’s anti-inurement and prohibited...more
When a participant terminates employment without being fully vested in their qualified retirement plan account, the non-vested portion of the account is a “forfeiture.” While forfeitures are a common element of most...more
Earlier this year, the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued proposed regulations on the use of forfeitures by tax-qualified retirement plans. The changes, published in the Federal Register,...more
On February 27, 2023, the IRS and the Department of Treasury published proposed regulations regarding the use of forfeitures in qualified retirement plans. If finalized, the proposed rule will be effective for plan years...more
In a 2010 newsletter, the IRS announced that forfeitures under a 401(k) plan or other defined contribution plan must be promptly used and not allowed to accumulate over several years. In February, the IRS proposed...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued proposed regulations that would require forfeitures in defined contribution plans—i.e., unvested benefits forfeited by terminating defined contribution plan participants—to...more
On February 27, 2023, the IRS published proposed regulations on the use of forfeitures in qualified retirement plans. For defined contribution plans, the regulations provide welcome clarity on what forfeitures can be used for...more
On February 24, 2023, the IRS issued proposed regulations simplifying the use of forfeitures in qualified retirement plans, providing that forfeitures in defined contribution plans must be used by the end of the plan year...more
With COVID and massive layoffs, we certainly have a partial termination problem to consider. If an employer has a turnover rate of 20% or more, that counts as a partial termination, and employers have to fully vest employees...more
This Client Advisory highlights important developments in the law governing employee benefit plans and executive compensation over the past year. It offers insight into what these developments mean for employers and plan...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has ruled that forfeitures under 401(k) plans can now be used to make qualified nonelective contributions (QNECs) and qualified matching contributions (QMACs) to 401(k) plans. This recent...more
Forfeitures that occur when people terminate service from retirement plans is usually a problem when the plan sponsor and their providers forget about them. Whether forfeitures are used to pay expenses, reduce employer...more
Some of our employer client sponsors of pre-approved 401(k) plans have contacted us regarding plan amendment notices received recently from their prototype or volume submitter plan document sponsors relating to the expanded...more
On January 18, 2017, the IRS issued proposed regulations that expand the permitted uses of forfeitures in a 401(k) plan. Under the proposed rules, the definitions of “qualified nonelective contributions” (QNECs) and...more
Defined contribution plans such as 401(k) plans have a forfeiture provision if there are contribution in the plan that are not immediately vested. The problem with the forfeiture provision is that they are usually neglected...more