The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) adopted changes to the required financial statement disclosures of employee benefit plans with investments in master trusts. The changes will standardize the content and presentation of information reported in plans’ financial statements. Learn about the six significant items the FASB guidance addresses.
The US Supreme Court recently agreed to hear Sulyma v. Intel Corp. Investment Policy Committee, a case in which the Ninth Circuit ruled that ERISA’s three-year statute of limitations requires a plaintiff to actually read materials in order to start the running of ERISA’s three-year statute of limitations. ERISA § 413(2) bars actions more than three years after “the earliest date on which the plaintiff had actual knowledge of the breach or violation,” and the Ninth Circuit held that a plaintiff who receives all the relevant information relating to her claim, but does not read it or does not recall reading it, does not have “actual knowledge” to start the limitations period. The Sixth Circuit, however, has held differently; in Brown v. Owens Corning Investment Review Committee, 622 F.3d 564, 571 (6th Cir. 2010), it held that the failure to read documents will not shield a plaintiff from having actual knowledge of the documents’ contents. Several district courts have held similarly, determining that the three-year limitations period begins when the plaintiff receives the relevant information, whether she reads it or not. (more…)
Diane M. Morgenthaler and Jeffrey M. Holdvogt recently presented the webinar “Student Loan Benefits and Other 401(k) Developments” at the Worldwide Employee Benefits Network Chicagoland program. In the presentation, they discussed a variety of new 401(k) trends and developments, including:
For more information on these and other developments, please see our On the Subjects on the SECURE Act and the changes to EPCRS.
Those were the days: when family-owned businesses paid only passing attention to the business value of providing tax-efficient—and incentivizing—benefit plans and compensation options. Tomorrow, Employee Benefits partner Todd Solomon and Private Client partner Bobbi Bierhals join host Judith Wethall during our Fridays with Benefits webinar series to discuss benefit plans and compensation strategies for modern family-owned companies and family offices.
Join our lively 45-minute discussion, where we’ll discuss the following points:
Friday, June 7, 2019
10:00 – 10:45 am PST
11:00 – 11:45 am MST
12:00 – 12:45 pm CST
1:00 – 1:45 pm EST
The House recently passed the most significant piece of proposed retirement plan legislation in more than a decade: the SECURE Act. Although the Senate must also approve the bill before it becomes law, its proposed changes have considerable bipartisan support in Congress. Plan sponsors should start considering how changes included in the SECURE Act could impact their retirement plans. Employers who do not currently offer retirement plans should also review the new retirement plan incentives included in the proposed legislation.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently announced cost-of-living adjustments to the applicable dollar limits for health savings accounts and high-deductible health plans for 2020. Nearly all of the dollar limits currently in effect for 2019 will change for 2020.
See a comparison of the applicable dollar limits for HSAs and HDHPs for 2019 and 2020.
On Friday, March 24, 2019, the US Department of Health and Human Services issued a proposed rule (along with a related fact sheet) under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that would make significant changes to the final regulations issued in 2016. Section 1557, in effect since the ACA was enacted in 2010, provides that an individual shall not—on the grounds prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (race, color, national origin), Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (sex), the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 (age) or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (disability)—be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any health program or activity, any part of which is receiving federal financial assistance, or under any program or activity that is administered by an agency established under Title I of the ACA.
The proposed rule addresses a broad range of changes to the previously issued rule. These changes would include eliminating the non-discrimination notices and “tagline” translation notices in significant communications and revising prior guidance on sex discrimination to no longer include gender identity and termination of pregnancy, among other changes. Interested parties are invited to submit comments on the proposed rule through the period ending 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
The IRS recently released an updated version of EPCRS, the IRS’s program for correcting errors that occur under tax-qualified retirement plans. The latest version of EPCRS makes it easier for plan sponsors to self-correct certain types of plan loan, operational and plan document failures without filing a VCP submission.
A recent summary-judgment decision explains how individual releases can bar the individual from pursuing ERISA fiduciary-breach claims on behalf of the plan. A plan, employer or fiduciary that wants to ensure a release that includes ERISA claims on behalf of a plan should consider language that addresses the court’s areas of inquiry in the case, which are outlined in this article.
The City of Dallas recently passed an ordinance requiring employers to provide paid sick leave to workers. Starting August 1, 2019, employers with more than five employees who perform at least 80 hours of work in a year in Dallas should be prepared to comply with the new ordinance.
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