The Form 5500: What All Employers and Plan Administrators Need to Know and How to Avoid Costly Fines
By July 31, employers that sponsor self-funded medical plans must report and pay their PCORI fee. By July 31, employers that sponsor calendar-year employee benefit plans that are subject to ERISA must file a Form 5500 (unless...more
As a plan fiduciary, I still can’t believe it. A Third Party Administrator (TPA) we terminated was trying to hold us up for valuations and a Form 5500 we paid for, as part of, annual administration. It was $80,000....more
Missing that deadline to file a Form 5500 is a huge problem. Sometimes people forget even when the Third Party Administrator (TPA) completes it promptly. I’ve had clients not realizing they had a year or two years’ worth of...more
As discussed so many times in the past, I went to that crappy law firm and thought I could use social media to bring in clients. The managing attorney had so much disdain for it. She thought it was such a lowly concept, like...more
I would have this recurring nightmare when I was younger, when I would dream that I was back in school, didn’t attend class all semester, and the final for the class was that day. I later learned that this was a fear of...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
We are just past the “official” start of summer, which means it is time for sponsors of retirement plans and many health and welfare plans to think about preparing and submitting Form 5500. In this post on the All Things HR...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
Since 2015, federal agencies have been required to annually review the laws and regulations they enforce to adjust applicable penalties for inflation. The idea has been to provide increasingly greater incentives for plan...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
One of the most annoying parts of being an ERISA attorney was the requirement that new retirement plans be adopted by the last day of the Plan Year, making December 31st a very busy time of year....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
On July 16, 2021, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Revenue Procedure 2021-30, which made several important changes to the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) and expanded the ability of plan...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: As Seyfarth has blogged about on multiple occasions, the CARES Act provided relief for qualified plans as a result of COVID-19. With respect to qualified defined benefit pension plans, the CARES Act...more
On July 31, the IRS issued Notice 2020-61 (the “Notice”) to provide guidance related to the special funding rules applicable to single-employer defined benefit pension plans under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic...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 (IRS) has increased the filing and payment relief provided under prior guidance....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 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
On December 20, 2019, federal legislation approving spending limits for the 2020 fiscal year was signed into law. Included in the legislation is the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the...more
As 2019 comes to an end, we are pleased to present our traditional End of Year Plan Sponsor “To Do” Lists. This year, we present our “To Do” Lists in four separate Employee Benefits Updates. Part 1 covered health and welfare...more