The No Surprises Act: A Cost Saving Opportunity for Employer Plan Sponsors
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
The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) recently entered into a settlement agreement with a New York-based insurer and third-party administrator (“Company”) of employer group health plans governed by the Employee Retirement...more
Big Concepts That 401(k) Plan Providers Forget About. Whether it was working for others or working for charitable organizations, it seems that there is a culture out there that seems to forget why these businesses and...more
As an ERISA attorney, I always have an open phone policy with plan sponsors, financial advisors, accountants, TPAs, and other attorneys from around the country on questions they may have about their plan or a client’s...more
In one of the first ERISA cases to address claims against fiduciaries for excessive health plan fees, the court entered judgment in favor of the defendants on all counts. The decision addresses health plan fiduciary standards...more
Chutzpah is nerve, shameless audacity. The best example of chutzpah is someone who kills their parents and asks the court for leniency because they’re an orphan. I’ve been in this business of ours for the past 20 plus...more
A friend of mine called me up a few weeks back and was telling me a story how he had a debate with Jeff Richie from Vantage Benefits at a conference a few years back. Richie claimed he had some writing from the Department of...more
In light of the recent settlement between the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and a health plan third-party administrator (TPA), plan fiduciaries and TPAs should re-examine, or even re-negotiate, portions of their current TPA...more
Editor's Overview - This month, we have re-published an interview of our colleague Seth Safra discussing the Department of Labor’s final regulation concerning fiduciaries and conflicts of interest. In this interview,...more
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued long awaited re-proposed regulations governing fiduciary status and investment advice titled “Definition of the Term ‘Fiduciary’; Conflict of Interest Rule—Investment Advice” for...more
I am a firm believer in the idea that what you see is what you should get. If you’re promised the moon, anything short of that is wrong. Some of the biggest disappointments in my life is when I was sold a bill of goods that...more
The term “deer in the headlights” explains the mental state of a person who shows behavioral signs that remind us of a deer subjected to a car’s headlights where the deer is in such panic that they show no motor reaction to...more
Things They Never Tell You as a Retirement Plan Provider. Stuff plan providers should avoid. I always say that whatever I learned as an ERISA attorney and the retirement plan business; I couldn't have learned...more
Unless they are involved in the retirement plan industry a plan sponsor must delegate much of their duties to retirement plan providers that may include third party administrators (TPAs), financial advisors, and ERISA...more
In his inaugural address in 1933 amidst the Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said that the only thing we had to fear was “fear itself”. 1933 predates ERISA by 40+ years, so FDR clearly didn’t understand the dilemmas of...more