Two Texas federal court decisions have stalled the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) “investment advice fiduciary rule” under Section 3(21) of the Employee Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (the “Fiduciary Rule”) from its September 23, 2024 effective date (see our previous alert).…

In a blog post dated May 10, 2024, we discussed the Form 5330, an excise tax return used by certain employers and individuals to pay penalty taxes with respect to employee benefit plans, must be filed electronically for taxable years ending on or after December 31, 2023 if the filer is required to file at least 10 returns of any type. As described further in that blog post, this electronic filing requirement had the potential to create issues for sponsors of qualified retirement plans because there was not an Authorized e-file Provider (“AEP”) with the capability of electronically filing Forms 5330. Without relief from the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), employers would not have the option of filing the Forms 5330 by paper even with the lack of AEPs.…

The Form 5330‎, an excise tax return used by certain employers and individuals to pay penalty ‎taxes, must be filed electronically for taxable years ending on or after December 31, 2023. As ‎described below, this may create issues for sponsors of qualified retirement plans.‎…

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a final rule on April 26, 2024 (the “Final Rule”) under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) after reviewing more than 85,000 comments from the public following the Proposed Rule.…

In its latest attempt in a fourteen-year old quest to update the circa-1975 definition of a fiduciary who renders “investment advice for a fee or other compensation, direct or indirect” (an “investment advice fiduciary”) under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”), on April 25, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (the “Department”) released final regulations (the “Final Rule”) defining an investment advice fiduciary, as well as amendments to several prohibited transaction class exemptions (“PTE”).  This post summarizes the key provisions of the Final Rule and the amendments to the PTEs.…

In late December 2023, approximately one year after Congress enacted the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2022 (“SECURE 2.0”), the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) released Notice 2024-2 (the “Notice”) providing much needed guidance, in the form of questions and answers, on 12 of the 90 new provisions added by SECURE 2.0.…

The Internal Revenue Service announced the 2024 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 2024. Most of the dollar ‎limits, including the elective deferral contribution limit for 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) plans, the ‎annual compensation limit under 401(a)(17) and the maximum annual contribution limit under ‎Code Section 415(c) will increase from 2023 limits. The dollar limit for catch-up contributions ‎‎(if age 50 or older) remains the same as the 2023 limit.‎…

Long-awaited guidance was received from the IRS on Friday related to the SECURE 2.0 ‎requirement that catch-up contributions for high-income participants in 401(k), 403(b), and ‎governmental 457(b) plans be made as Roth contributions. Notice 2023-62 provides for a 2-year ‎administrative transition period that will be welcome relief to retirement plan sponsors and ‎record keepers alike.…