News & Analysis as of

Recordkeeping Requirements Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) Retirement Plan

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

Quick Tips for Plan Sponsors Who Want to Stay Out of Trouble

If you’re a 401(k) plan sponsor, you don’t need to be an ERISA expert—you just need to avoid doing dumb things. Here are a few quick tips to help you stay on the right side of your fiduciary duties and keep your participants...more

Morgan Lewis

ETFs for ERISA Plans: Operational Barriers and Potential Benefits

Morgan Lewis on

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have gained an increasing foothold in the wealth-management investment universe, with ETF assets under management currently about half the assets under management of mutual funds. As the ETF...more

Snell & Wilmer

Five Things to Know about the DOL’s New VFCP Self-Correction Feature Taking Effect Next Week

Snell & Wilmer on

By Amberlee Lapointe On January 14, 2025, the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”) released updates to its Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (“VFCP”), along with a News Release and Fact Sheet...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Exciting Update: Self-Correction for Delinquent Contributions Now Possible Under the DOL’s VFCP

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

On January 14, 2025, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) within the Department of Labor (DOL) updated its Voluntary Fiduciary Compliance Program (VFCP). The VFCP allows plan officials to correct certain...more

Proskauer - Employee Benefits & Executive...

Fourth Circuit Approves Award of Estimated Delinquent Contributions

Multiemployer benefit plans generally require contributing employers to submit “remittance reports” that identify the employees that performed covered work, the type of work performed, and the amount of time worked. Plans...more

Goodwin

Supreme Court Grants Review in ERISA Class Action Challenging Plan Sponsor’s Recordkeeping Arrangement

Goodwin on

Key takeaway: The Supreme Court granted certiorari to address the pleading standards for prohibited-transaction claims under 29 U.S.C. § 1106(a). On October 4, 2024, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Cunningham v....more

Foster Swift Collins & Smith

DOL Echoes Employee Benefits and Cybersecurity Best Practices

On April 14, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”) issued its first cybersecurity best practices guidance for retirement plans. The EBSA guidance was highly...more

Morrison & Foerster LLP

Amendment To QPAM Exemption

The Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued a final amendment (“Final Amendment”) to Prohibited Transaction Exemption (PTE) 84-14, which is otherwise known as the “QPAM Exemption.” The QPAM Exemption is a prohibited...more

Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP

Dual registrant regulatory roundup - May 2024

Welcome to the Regulatory Roundup. Each month, Eversheds Sutherland Investment Services attorneys review significant regulatory developments (including notable rulemakings and guidance from securities regulators) from the...more

Proskauer - Employee Benefits & Executive...

Fifth Circuit Reverses Dismissal of 401(k) Fees Claims

The Fifth Circuit recently reversed a district court’s dismissal of claims that the fiduciaries of a 401(k) plan breached the duty of prudence under ERISA by offering participants retail share classes instead of cheaper...more

Holland & Hart - The Benefits Dial

Just Because I’m Missing, Doesn’t Mean I’m Lost: Should Plan Sponsors Provide Data for the DOL’s Missing Participant Database?

“Missing participants” have long been a thorn in the side of plan sponsors and administrators, as they are owed a retirement benefit, but are unable to be found or unresponsive to plan communications. As a partial solution,...more

Latham & Watkins LLP

Raising the Bar: DOL’s Amendment Sets Higher Standards for QPAM Qualification

Latham & Watkins LLP on

The DOL’s final amendment to the QPAM Exemption sets forth more rigorous compliance requirements and expands the circumstances of ineligibility, potentially affecting the operations and compliance procedures of investment...more

Holland & Knight LLP

Tenth Circuit Dismisses Claims Related to High-Cost Funds, High Recordkeeping Fees

Holland & Knight LLP on

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit issued its decision in Matney v. Barrick Gold of North America, et al. on Sept. 6, 2023, finding that participants in an employer-sponsored defined contribution retirement plan...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Managed Accounts in 401(k) Plans: Their Value and Their Dangers

Dorsey & Whitney LLP on

A “managed account” is a discretionary portfolio management service that makes investment decisions for individual participants within the confines of a 401(k) plan and its fund options. This service is fundamentally...more

Verrill

Unanimous Supreme Court Overturns Court of Appeals in Northwestern University 403(b) Plans Excessive Fee Case

Verrill on

The United States Supreme Court has agreed with participants in two 403(b) plans sponsored by Northwestern University that their lawsuit, alleging that plan recordkeeping and investment fees were excessive, should not have...more

ArentFox Schiff

Supreme Court Set To Rule This Spring on ERISA Investment Fees, Affecting Over 150 Cases Around the Country

ArentFox Schiff on

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument to decide a circuit split and determine what ERISA requires of ERISA-governed pension plan fiduciaries with respect to investment fees and recordkeeping. A decision is expected in...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Supreme Court Struggles to Apply “Twiqbal” in Retirement Plan Fee Cases

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Hughes v. Northwestern University, No. 19-1401, just one of about 150 similar class action suits filed around the country in the last few years. The case was brought by...more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Lessons Learned from Recent Fiduciary Victories

There is nothing a plan sponsor or ERISA fiduciary can do to prevent allegations of fiduciary breach; however, there are many things they can do to be prepared to rebut such claims. Unfortunately, because of “headline news,”...more

Morgan Lewis - ML Benefits

DOL ‘Encourages’ Retirement Plan Fiduciaries to Recoup Uncashed Checks from Prior Recordkeepers

The focus of the US Department of Labor (DOL) on missing participants and uncashed checks (discussed in our LawFlash DOL Guidance on Missing Participants Is No Longer Missing) recently began expanding into the area of...more

Proskauer - Employee Benefits & Executive...

Tenth Circuit Addresses Damages for Excessive Recordkeeping Fee Claims

One of the multitude of recent cases challenging the recordkeeping fees of 401(k) plans recently made its way to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Ramos v. Banner Health, No. 20-1231, — F.3d —- (10th Cir. June 11, 2021). ...more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

Ascensus is acquired

One of the biggest consolidators in the third-party administration (TPA) business has found itself being acquired....more

Holland & Hart - The Benefits Dial

In the Darkness at the Edge of Town…Cybersecurity Guidance for Plan Participants, Record-Keepers, and Plan Sponsors From The EBSA

On April 14, 2021, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”) published guidance for plan sponsors, plan fiduciaries, record-keepers, and plan participants on best practices for maintaining cybersecurity. This is...more

Lowenstein Sandler LLP

Fiduciary Rule Prohibited Transaction Class Exemption Released By The DOL

Lowenstein Sandler LLP on

On December 15, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released a final prohibited transaction class exemption for certain fiduciary investment advice actions. Issuance of the exemption is the latest in the tug of war of...more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

Free record keeping and you

Several of the large bundled providers are offering free recordkeeping for parts of next year if plan sponsors switch over to them. It might be a gimmick, but it’s clever marketing. When they are large in the 401(k) business...more

Lowenstein Sandler LLP

U.S. Department Of Labor Proposes New (Simpler) Fiduciary Rule Exemption

Lowenstein Sandler LLP on

On June 29, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) again waded into the financial services standard of care waters, only this time, it is staying in the shallow end. The DOL’s proposed prohibited transaction exemption (Proposed...more

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