Retirement plans of all sizes often find themselves faced with participants or beneficiaries who are either missing or do not respond to communication. The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) has long been concerned with how plans try to locate and contact these ‘missing’ participants and, more importantly, how they try…

Anti-assignment clauses in ERISA health plans are useful to plan sponsors in fending off lawsuits by out-of-network providers.  Federal courts have consistently upheld anti-assignment provisions contained in the plan document and/or the summary plan description (SPD).

In a recent unpublished ERISA case, the US Court of Appeals for the 9th…

The Internal Revenue Service recently announced that it will treat contributions to single-employer defined benefit pension plans, previously extended to January 1, 2021 by the CARES Act, as timely if made no later than January 4, 2021 (which is the first business day after January 1, 2021).

Plan sponsors of…

The Internal Revenue Service announced the 2021 cost-of-living adjustments to the dollar limitations for qualified retirement plans and other benefits, and the Social Security Administration announced its own cost-of-living adjustments for 2021.  Most of the dollar limits, including the elective deferral contribution limit for 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) plans and…

The economic uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many employers to furlough or layoff a significant percentage of their workforce.  These workforce reductions may inadvertently cause a “partial termination” of the employer’s qualified retirement plan triggering a requirement that all affected participants become 100% vested in their plan accounts. …

On August 8, 2020, President Trump issued the Presidential Memorandum on Deferring Payroll ‎Tax Obligations in Light of the Ongoing COVID-19 Disaster (the “Executive Order”).  The ‎Executive Order instructed the Treasury Department to provide guidance authorizing employers ‎to defer the collection and deposit of employee payroll tax obligations.  On August

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On July 31, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Treasury Department issued ‎Proposed Treasury Regulations (the “Proposed Regs”) providing guidance under the ‎‎“carried interest” rules of Section 1061 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended ‎‎(the “Code”).  Please see our Quick Study “IRS Issues Carried…

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued helpful guidance to plan sponsors of safe harbor 401(k) plans that are considering reducing or suspending safe harbor employer matching contributions or safe harbor nonelective contributions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.  As explained below, IRS Notice 2020-52 provides temporary relief from certain…

The Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury jointly released additional frequently asked questions (“FAQs”) regarding implementation of the health coverage provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”); the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”), and other health coverage issues related to…