PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Time to Tidy-Up Plan Documents
Fifteen years ago, I walked away from the law firm treadmill, overhead, politics, billable hours, all of it, and went out on my own. I wanted to practice ERISA law in a way that actually added value, not just racked up hours....more
Being an ERISA attorney for a couple of third-party administration (TPA) firms when I first started helps you develop a sense of humor because there are too many people I was associated with who had absolutely zero training...more
Retirement plans with more than 100 participants require a CPA audit for their Form 5500. However, small plans with less than 100 participants may sometimes require an audit. This often happens when more than 5% of the Plan’s...more
Owners and employees of smaller organizations often find themselves stretched in many directions. With all of the demands on one’s time associated with operating a business, it is not uncommon to see attention to the...more
As they once said in This is Spinal Tap, there is a fine line between stupid and clever. I can assure you that Michael McKeon who played David St. Hubbins in the movie and co-wrote it, was not in plan administration. Based on...more
I’ve spent 21 years as an ERISA attorney and took some classes when I was getting my LLM and I learn something new about retirement plans every day. As a financial advisor, you likely didn’t have the training to be an ERISA...more
Last week, we kicked off our blog series on the fundamentals of benefit claim administration with an explanation of how important it is to know and read your plan document. The plan document is the legally binding contract...more
Our ERISA Practice Center blog posts often discuss many complex, and sometimes esoteric, substantive and procedural ERISA issues, as well as related agency guidance and case law. In this new ten-part blog series, however, we...more
After annoying many plan sponsors and plan providers by increasing user fees for their voluntary compliance program (VCP), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) goes the other way by increasing the number of opportunities for...more
Employers may soon find themselves reviewing and revising health plan master documents and summary plan descriptions (SPDs) and administrative service agreements with respect to an obscure claims administration practice known...more
There are so many articles for plan sponsors (I’ve written quite a few) where they go on and on about what plan sponsors need for a successful 401(k) plan. Rather than go into a whole diatribe, here is a Reader’s Digest of...more
This is Spinal Tap has the great line that “there is a fine line between being clever and stupid.” The same can be said with plan provisions that are what I call: “out of the box.” I call it out of the box because it reminds...more
Plan Sponsors Need To Fix Their Plan Errors Now! You can't wait, fix it now! For most of us, when we don't feel well, we go to the doctor. We don't wait until things get worse, we take care of things because there...more
The year 1974 was a watershed for employee benefits. For the first time, the federal government undertook the complicated task of providing a statutory and regulatory framework for employee benefit plans and employee pension...more
Being a plan sponsor is a tough job and the amount of paperwork that goes with it can be overwhelming. The paperwork includes plan documents, summary plan descriptions, amendment, valuations, trusts statements, and payroll....more
Mull v. Motion Picture Ind. Health Plan educates employers on the basics of the requirements of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) governing plan documents and summary plan descriptions. The lessons are...more
A federal court dismissed the plaintiffs’ claim to recover civil penalties for failure to provide plan documents requested by the plaintiffs. Boyd v. Sysco Corporation, No. 4:13-cv-00599 (D. S. C. September 3, 2015), provides...more
The Third Circuit recently held that ERISA administrative appeal denial letters must include plan-imposed time limits for commencing a lawsuit challenging the claim denial, and the failure to provide such notice warranted...more