By Greg Daugherty on After years of revising regulations and even more years of legal battles, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) 2016 ERISA fiduciary regulations (the regulations) essentially end up right where they started. That is because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit issued its mandate officially vacating in toto the regulations, including the Best Interest … Continue Reading
By Greg Daugherty on The IRS’s Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division recently issued a memorandum (the memo) to its auditors that directed them not to challenge a 403(b) plan as failing to satisfy the required minimum distribution (RMD) standards under circumstances set out in the memo. This guidance is helpful to 403(b) plan sponsors and consistent with missing … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on I wanted to direct our readers to a recent post from Brian Hall – Editor of our sister blog – Employer Law Report – regarding a recent Sixth Circuit decision in Farhner v. United Transportation Union Discipline Income Protection Plan. As Brian states: … a well-drafted ERISA income protection or severance pay plan should enable the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Supreme Court decisions about ERISA cases, while infrequent, typically contain some surprises, as demonstrated most recently in CIGNA Corp. v. Amara. In 1997, CIGNA notified employees that it was freezing accruals under its traditional defined benefit plan, and converting the plan into a cash balance plan. A cash balance plan is a “hybrid” defined benefit … Continue Reading
