The Form 5500: What All Employers and Plan Administrators Need to Know and How to Avoid Costly Fines
I sound like a broken record, but I won’t stop until 401(k) plan sponsors understand the issue of a late Form 5500 and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Department of Labor (DOL) penalties....more
George Carlin had a joke that to get off a jury, you should just tell the Judge that you can determine a person is guilty by just looking at them....more
“Solo 401(k)” is a marketing term used for a 401(k) plan that is adopted by a sole proprietor or an incorporated business with no employees other than the owner. These plans offer a greater retirement savings opportunity...more
I got a phone call from a broker who wanted to give me a free 401(k) analysis. I’m sure the call was from Form 5500 where I’m listed as a plan sponsor. The broker had no idea who I was or what I did for a living, but it...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
I’ve been long in this business to remember no participant websites, so I’m amazed by technological breakthroughs. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools BenchMine is billed as the first-ever AI 401(k) comparative analysis...more
The Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service, and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation recently issued final rules on employee benefit plan annual reporting requirements that are effective for plan years beginning on or...more
How to determine whether a plan sponsor is paying way too much? Like Justice Potter Stewart would say, I know it when I see it. I have seen the information shown on Form 5500 or a fee disclosure form. Whether it’s the plan...more
I think the Solo 401(k) plan is one of the great treats for sole proprietors. I have been using it for years. The problem is that there is so little help, that sponsors of these plans fall into a trap when they forget that...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) announced changes to Form 5500. For Multiple Employer Plans (MEPs), new codes have been added to Line 8a of Part II to identify different types of MEPs, such as pooled employer plans,...more
While working as an ERISA attorney with a national practice (cough, cough), it’s clear to me that the biggest compliance issue that my plan sponsors clients to have these days is the late deposit of deferrals....more
The auditing business for retirement plans has been cleaned up over the years, and quite a few auditors who have no business conducting audits were moved aside by the Department of Labor (DOL), and further changes for the...more
In today’s episode of “Just Compensation,” hosts Megan Monson, Taryn E. Cannataro, and Batool T. Banker of Lowenstein’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation practice examine the Form 5500, which must be filed by all...more
The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) released their final revisions to the Form 5500 and the Form 5500-SF Short Form Annual Return/Report of Small Employee Benefit Plan for the 2021 plan...more
Solo 401(k) plans were a great opportunity for owner-employees to offer a plan for themselves (as well as their spouse)....more
When a plan terminates and distributes all its assets or merges all its assets into another plan, you need to understand that a Final Form 5500 needs to be completed. Otherwise, you will get notified by the Internal Revenue...more
Part of my job is fixing errors made by plan sponsors and their plan providers. Despite what the top payroll providers who also serve as third-party administrators (TPA) may say, a good part of that job is fixing the errors...more
The Covid-19 pandemic and its shock to the country’s economy have been felt particularly hard by small employers, who are also likely to face a number of looming problems with their 401(k) plans. This article discusses three...more
When I was 13 and I had my Bar Mitzvah, I plunked down about $2,000 in 1985 money for a state of the art Apple IIe with a monochrome monitor. One of the first pieces of software I bought was the top desktop publishing...more
The Internal Revenue Service has issued Notice 2020-23, which automatically postpones certain deadlines affecting employee benefit plans. Specifically, any deadline that would ordinarily fall on or after April 1, 2020,...more
The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the “SECURE Act”), the largest package of retirement system reforms in over a decade, was enacted on December 20, 2019. ...more
The SECURE Act* makes significant changes to employer-sponsored retirement plans and many of the changes take effect immediately. Highlights of the provisions of the SECURE Act that are effective in 2020 include: -...more
The SECURE Act: What It Is And What It Is NOT - As part of a large year-end piece of legislation, the provisions known as the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Security Act (the “SECURE Act”) were enacted into...more
The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the “SECURE Act”), the largest package of retirement system reforms in over a decade, was enacted on December 20, 2019. Many of the provisions in the...more
Congress recently passed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the “SECURE Act”), the largest package of retirement system reforms in over a decade. Many of the provisions in the SECURE Act...more