Social Security Administration Corrects and Updates Wage Base for 2018
Health Plan, Retirement Plans, Welfare Plans On November 27, 2017, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced that it is adjusting the maximum earnings subject to the Social Security tax for 2018 to $128,400. As we have previously posted, the SSA had announced that it would increase the maximum earnings to $128,700. The SSA made the adjustment after...
IRS Annual Limits on Qualified Plans for 2018
Health Plan, Retirement Plans, Welfare Plans On October 19, 2017, the Internal Revenue Service released the 2018 cost-of-living adjustments affecting dollar limits on benefits and contributions for qualified retirement plans. The Notice providing the cost-of-living adjustments is available here. The Service also announced various other inflation adjustments in...
Tibble and Class Action Plaintiffs Win Round Two versus Edison International and Its 401(k) Investment Committees
ERISA and Other Benefits Litigation, Fiduciary Guidance, Retirement Plans In past articles in this Blog I reported on decisions of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court dealing with a class action for breach of fiduciary duty for selecting retail mutual funds in 1999 for which lower costs institutional funds were available....
No Additional Delay on Effective Date of New Fiduciary Standards – DOL
ERISA and Other Benefits Litigation, Fiduciary Guidance, Retirement Plans This week, new U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Acosta announced that the final fiduciary regulations would go into effect on June 9, 2017. The Department also issued two pieces of guidance with regard to the regulations also referred to as the “Conflicted Advice Rules”. The guidance consists of a set of FAQs...
Embezzlement of 401(k) Deferrals by COO of Architecture Firm is (Doubly) Costly
ERISA and Other Benefits Litigation, Fiduciary Guidance, Payroll, Retirement Plans On March 22, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled against Christine Bodouva that her restoration of funds to her Company’s 401(k) Plan should be offset against the District Court’s order for forfeiture in her criminal trial. U.S. v Christine Bodouva, Case 16-3937, 2nd Cir....
IRS Issues Substantiation Guidelines for 401(k) Hardship Distributions
Retirement Plans On February 23, 2017, the Internal Revenue Service issued a “Memorandum for Employee Plans (EP) Examinations Employees,” outlining Substantiation Guidelines for safe harbor hardship distributions from 401(k) plans (“Memorandum”). The purpose of the Memorandum is to provide IRS field examiners with guidance...
Bill Introduced To Delay Effective Date of DOL Fiduciary Rule
Fiduciary Guidance, IRAs, Retirement Plans On January 6, 2017 Rep. Joe Wilson introduced a house bill that would delay for two years the effective date of the DOL Fiduciary Rule set to take effect on April 1, 2017. http://src.bna.com/ldB. This legislation follows comments from a number of Republican lawmakers critical of the DOL Rule, including members...
IRS Annual Limits on Qualified Plans for 2017
Health Plan, Retirement Plans, Welfare Plans IRS Annual Limits on Qualified Plans for 2017 On October 27, 2016, the Internal Revenue Service released the 2017 cost of living adjustments affecting dollar limits on benefits and contributions under qualified retirement plans and health savings accounts. Changes from 2016 were minimal. Notice 2016-62 is available...
Owner/Trustee of 401(k) Plan Accused of Having Eyes Wide Shut on Fiduciary Duties
ERISA and Other Benefits Litigation, Fiduciary Guidance, Retirement Plans, Uncategorized Last June I blogged about the trend of participant fee class actions moving down to smaller 401(k) Plans. http://benefitsnotes.com/2016/06/inside-trustees-for-small-minnesota-401k-plan-face-class-action-over-excessive-fees/ Occasionally, class actions are brought based on other breaches of fiduciary duties,...