Category: News

Sponsors of single-employer defined benefit pension plans will need to amend those plans soon to comply with a critical requirement of the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

Employers will have a number of obligations and opportunities as the heart of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) is implemented in 2014. But if they are only listening to the chatter of the debates, they are not getting the …

It happens all the time: Employees who are considering retirement ask HR staff about their post-employment benefits. If the answers those employees receive turn out to be incorrect, the responders may be accused of violating their fiduciary duties und…

By now, most retirement plan sponsors will have received a flurry of disclosures from vendors who provide services to their plans. Those disclosures (commonly known as 408(b)(2) notices) should have been provided by July 1, 2012. Employers may think th…

Check out the latest episode in the sprawling saga of equitable remedies under ERISA. The question, as always, is whether a participant is entitled to something for which the plan document does not expressly provide. This time, the answer appears to b…

Recent activity by regulators suggests a trend toward stricter HIPAA enforcement.

In the last two years, the IRS has issued several pieces of guidance regarding the correction of deferred compensation arrangements that violate the requirements of Code Section 409A.

Starting in 2014, larger employers (generally, those with 50 or more employees) may face "shared responsibility" penalties if any of their "full-time" employees receive subsidized health coverage through an "Affordable Insuranc…

"Grandfathered" health plans that have not undergone significant changes since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was enacted in March 2010 will once again have to assess whether the plan can and/or should try to retain su…

In this case, sponsors of defined benefit pension plans received the funding relief they had sought, but only because the added tax revenues will help pay for transportation projects and prevent student-loan interest rates from doubling.

Find out what you may need to do to comply with with the patient-centered outcomes provision of the health care reform law.

As enrollment time approaches, employers should be aware of the new contribution limits on flexible spending accounts (FSA) imposed by the health care reform law.

As enrollment time nears, employers should be aware of the new summary of benefits and coverage (SBC) rules under the health care reform law.

Find out what you need to know regarding the medical loss ratio (MLR) rebates stemming from the health care reform law.

Medical loss ratio (MLR) rebates are due in August, which means employers should plan how they will handle any rebates they may receive.

In some ways, the Ninth Circuit’s recent decision in Skinner v. Northrop Grumman Retirement Plan B is a garden-variety example of a classic fact pattern: The terms of a summary plan description (SPD) promise better benefits than the plan document it su…

Sponsors of 401(k) plans often fail to make the proper employer matching contribution called for under the terms of the plan document. Although there are any number of causes for this failure, a common one involves the timing of matching contributions.

How the Court rules is anybody’s guess. What is certain, however, is that the decision will seriously shape employer-sponsored benefits in the short and long term.

After more than four years of regulatory starts and stops, plus the threat of a legislative solution, two separate sets of fee disclosure regulations issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) will finally become effective this summer. These regulations w…