PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Can Employers Impose a Health Insurance Surcharge on Plan Participants Not Vaccinated for COVID-19?
ERISA requires disclosure of certain plan documents to participants including a summary plan description, statements, and notices. The problem is what do you do with people who aren’t participants such as potential employees?...more
Over the years, plan sponsors and administrators have wrestled with the question of what to do with the accounts of participants who left employment years earlier and cannot now be located. ...more
In Singh v. Deloitte LLP, et al., No. 23-1108, 2024 WL 5049345 (2d Cir. Dec. 10, 2024), the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court’s dismissal of a complaint alleging that plan fiduciaries caused an...more
The end of the year is fast approaching. Before calendars fill up too much with parties and PTO, now is a good time to take stock of year-end notice requirements for plan sponsors. As a quick reference, included below are...more
A U.S. District Court judge threw out a case against Microsoft which claimed that the BlackRock LifePath Index Funds suite of target-date funds was an imprudent investment choice for their plan participants....more
A plan sponsor was spared from a 403(b) lawsuit, but the advisor is still on the hook. Two plaintiffs filed a complaint in Texas federal court against their employer, Legacy Counseling Center, Inc. the plan’s manager,...more
Passed by Congress in late 2019, the SECURE Act contained the most significant changes to qualified retirement plans (QRPs) and IRAs since the Pension Protection Act of 2006. Notably, the SECURE Act eliminated the...more
In response to the continued proliferation of lawsuits against retirement plan fiduciaries, fiduciary liability insurers are raising rates, limiting coverage, and expanding their due diligence of fiduciary processes...more
Key Takeaways - ..Mishandling of premiums can lead to breach of fiduciary duty claims under ERISA against employers. ..Information beyond what is required to be disclosed by ERISA may need to be provided by plan...more
New cybersecurity developments and observations, including those relating to U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) review of cybersecurity issues, warrant prompt consideration by plan sponsors and other fiduciaries of employee...more
In the good old days of participant-directed 401(k) plans, a good chunk of financial advisors did very little work for the plans that they advised. Many of them sat back, collected their trail or asset-based fee, and maybe...more
We are pleased to present our annual End of Year Plan Sponsor “To Do” Lists. This year, we present our “To Do” Lists in four separate Employee Benefits Updates. This Part 1 covers year-end health and welfare plan issues....more
Less is more, I believe that. As an attorney in an occupation where most attorneys charge by the hour and believe more is more, I am an outlier. ...more
Welcome to Goodwin’s ERISA Litigation Update. Litigation involving ERISA-governed benefits plans has exploded in recent years. Lawyers in our award-winning ERISA Litigation practice have extensive experience litigating these...more
The DOL’s new fiduciary “rule” became effective on February 16, 2021. The rule is a combination of a new and expansive definition of fiduciary advice (and status) and an exemption from the prohibitions of ERISA and the...more
On July 16, 2021 the IRS issued Revenue Procedure 2021-30, which modifies and supersedes Revenue Procedure 2019-19, expanding the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (“EPCRS”). EPCRS is a program for correcting...more
Employers who sponsor employee benefits plans are used to providing ongoing communication to plan participants. The communications range from legally required disclosures (e.g., summary plan descriptions) to legally required...more
A district court decision in March has added to the sparse authority regarding the status of participant data under ERISA, particularly whether recordkeepers or other providers can use that data to offer additional products...more
The Godfather Rules And Your 401(k) Plan - Two of my favorite movies of all time are The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. I’m even a fan of The Godfather Part III, despite some of the unwarranted criticism. It’s more...more
In our April 2020 post, we detailed how employee layoffs can cause a qualified retirement plan to undergo a “partial termination,” resulting in required 100% vesting of the affected employees’ benefits. As 2020 drew to a...more
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, enacted on December 27, 2020 (the CAA), includes limited relief pertaining to the partial termination of a qualified retirement plan that may have been inadvertently triggered by...more
On March 27, 2020, President Trump signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”). Among its many and varied forms of relief, the CARES Act provides temporary relief for both plan...more
As previewed in our prior blog post, the recently enacted SECURE Act includes many changes that affect employer-sponsored benefit plans and require the attention of plan administrators. Among these changes, effective for...more
The holiday season is always a busy and eventful time, so you may have missed a new law that can impact how you plan for your retirement assets. On December 20, 2019, as part of a more comprehensive appropriations act, the...more
While plan providers tell 401(k) plan sponsors such as yourselves that you need to focus on fee and fiduciary issues, you should never lose sight of the fact that a 401(k) plan is an employee benefit....more