Employers often allow employees to donate leave to co-workers who are experiencing medical emergencies. If properly structured, these leave transfers can be excluded from the gross income of the donor employee and included in the gross income of the co-worker recipient. There are no statutes or regulations governing these arrangements. The only formal guidance available […]
RJ
A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit recently decided that Charles Schwab Corp. can require a proposed class action to arbitrate its claim that Schwab breached its fiduciary duties by including Schwab-affiliated investment funds in the Plan, despite the funds’ poor performance, to generate fees for Schwab and its affiliates. In doing so, the Ninth […]
MS
On July 17, 2019 the IRS released Notice 2019-45 resolving a preventive care problem that has been plaguing many high deductible health plans (“HDHPs.”). The Affordable Care Act’s free preventive care mandate appears to be working. People are catching medical problems sooner. As a result, many employers have embraced the concept of free preventive care […]
NC
On June 17th the Department of Labor finalized a set of proposed regulations requiring that all “top hat” plan statements be filed with the Department electronically though this website. As brief background, a “top hat” statement is a one-time filing made with the Department of Labor to protect against a non-qualified plan established for a […]
GG
Earlier this year, the Department of Labor issued an information letter explaining ERISA’s authorized representative requirement. Below are some of the takeaways employers may want to consider. 1. The Authorized Representative Requirement Under ERISA ERISA’s claims procedure regulations expressly give participants and beneficiaries the right to appoint authorized representatives to act on their behalf in […]
AB
In 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office of Civil Rights issued final regulations implementing the nondiscrimination provisions of the Affordable Care Act (“Section 1557”), which prohibit the categorical refusal of health coverage to transgender participants and require that individuals be treated consistent with their self-selected gender identity. These regulations drew sustained […]
MC
RJ
The SECURE Act (the “Act”) passed the House with bipartisan support and is on its way to the Senate with predictions that it could end up on the President’s desk by the end of the year. Here are some highlights of this potential legislation. 1. Longer Life means Later Mandatory Distributions. To account for increases […]
HG
Three best practices for plan administration that often fall by the wayside include: (1) regularly reminding participants to review and update their beneficiary designations; (2) checking recordkeeping practices to avoid loss of beneficiary designation information; and (3) acquiring identifying information for designated beneficiaries. Implementing these three best practices could save plan administrators significant costs and […]
RJ
The IRS recently issued its latest version of the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (“EPCRS”) in Rev. Proc. 2019-19. The EPCRS is the IRS program that assists employers in correcting both operational and document failures with respect to qualified retirement plans. There are several welcome changes to the new EPCRS, including: Certain plan loan failures […]
MS
As we previously reported, the Internal Revenue Service (the “Service”) scaled back its determination letter program for individually designed retirement plans effective as of January 1, 2017. In the intervening years, the Service received a multitude of comments requesting the reopening of the program. Now, the Service has decided to offer a limited expansion of […]
MC
