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IRS Continues to Extend Key Filing Deadlines in Response to COVID-19

On April 9. 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) issued Notice 2020-23, which extends a number of key filing deadlines in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The guidance provides welcome relief to individuals and plan sponsors who must perform certain “time-sensitive actions” on or after April 1, 2020 and before July 15, 2020.  […]

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GG
RJ
Former Associate

Salary Deferrals in the Time of COVID-19

As the saying goes, “drastic times call for drastic measures” and, from an economic standpoint, these are drastic times. To fight the battle to stay in business many employers are considering a wide range of alternatives, including employee furloughs, layoffs and terminations. While some employers may also consider sweeping salary reductions, other employers may consider […]

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MS
Former Partner

U.S. Supreme Court to Decide Standing Question on ERISA Pension Lawsuits

The U.S. Supreme Court is mulling over whether retirement plan participants must demonstrate individual or imminent risk of financial loss before seeking a breach of fiduciary duty action under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”).  On January 13, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the matter of Thole v. […]

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RJ
Former Associate

Congress Giveth and They Taketh Away — Recent Health Plan Changes

In enacting the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, (the “Act”), Congress, among other changes, enacted the following key changes affecting employer group health plans: Repeal of the Cadillac Tax:  Most notably, and a huge relief to most employers, Congress repealed the Cadillac tax.   The Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) added a requirement requiring employers to pay […]

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NC

New Year, New Age: the SECURE Act Increases the Required Minimum Distribution Age to 72

On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, a spending bill that includes the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the “SECURE Act”).  The SECURE Act initially passed the House in May, as discussed in our S&W Benefits Blog “The SECURE Act – A Primer on […]

Enjoy the End of the Decade with Some Employee Benefit Plan Checklists

Each year, we publish health and welfare, cost-of-living, qualified retirement plan, and executive compensation plan checklists to help individuals and employers stay apprised of updates to the law of employee benefits.  We just published the last of these annual checklists.  In case you missed them, the links are below. Happy Holidays! 2019 End of Year […]

IRS Publishes 2019 Required Amendments List

In our 2019 End of Year Plan Sponsor “To Do” List (Part 3) Qualified Plans, we suggested that sponsors of all qualified retirement plans should be on the lookout for the Internal Revenue Service’s (“IRS”) 2019 Required Amendments List (“2019 RA List”).  The IRS recently published Notice 2019-64, which contains the 2019 RA List, https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-19-64.pdf.  […]

IRS Issues Final Regulations for Hardship Distributions

We previously reported on the Bipartisan Budget Act (the “Budget Act”) hardship distribution rule changes for qualified retirement plans. On September 23, 2019, the IRS issued final regulations implementing certain statutory changes to the hardship distributions rules, including those required by the Budget Act. The final regulations closely track the proposed regulations issued in November […]

RJ
Former Associate

Potential $2.4 Billion and Countless Trees Saved – Department of Labor’s Proposed Rule on Electronic Disclosure for Retirement Plans

The Department of Labor recently issued a proposed rule that allows certain retirement plan disclosures to be posted online, rather than requiring such disclosures to be printed and mailed. The Department of Labor anticipates this rule, if finalized, would save plan sponsors $2.4 billion over the next ten years. The rule is currently in proposed […]

AM

ISS Expands List of Egregious Equity Plan Factors

As reported in prior blogs, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (“ISS”), a leading proxy advisory firm, uses a proprietary “Equity Plan Scorecard” approach to evaluate public company equity compensation plans and will recommend a “for” or “against” vote depending on a combination of plan features, plan cost, company grant practices, etc.  Last week ISS issued its […]

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GG