"Earned Income is used to apply rules to plans covering self-employed individuals in the following plan areas: allocations, accruals, deductions, IRC Section 401(a)(4) nondiscrimination, and IRC Section 415 Limits. Earned Income is also relevant for purposes of computing the limit under IRC Section 401(a)(17). For purposes of applying some of these rules, adjustments specified in the IRC and Treas. Regulations are made to a self-employed individual's Earned Income."   MORE >>

"Because the plain language of Section 1054(c)(3) does not contain a reasonableness requirement, Belknap argued that the term 'actuarial equivalent' either requires or implies a reasonableness standard. The court rejected this argument. The court emphasized that if Congress had intended Section 1054(c)(3) to require reasonableness assumptions or standards, it would have included the language as it had done in several other sections of ERISA." [ Belknap v. Partners Healthcare System, Inc. , No. 19-11437 (D. Mass. Mar. 4, 2022)]   MORE >>

"Offering these programs through DC plans require the incorporation of unique elements of ERISA and the Tax Code, while addressing a wide panoply of state insurance law issues and some pretty serious securities laws issues. It also involves managing quite a collection of disclosure requirements, while attending to the structure and relationships related to Individual Retirement Annuities and Individual Retirement Accounts ... which may be necessary to make the benefits under these programs portable. Toss in ... a smattering of state trust and banking laws."   MORE >>

"On May 5, 2022, [Senator Tommy Tuberville] (R-AL) introduced the 'Financial Freedom Act of 2022' [ S 4147 ]. The bill would push back on recent positions the [DOL] has taken with respect to, e.g., 'climate related financial risk,' private equity, and cryptocurrency investments, particularly in participant directed defined contribution plans."   MORE >>

"Investing in digital currency is not entirely secure due to the storage of the currency through digital wallets dependent on passcodes or in digital code stored in the cloud. The digital currency exchanges may be vulnerable to cyberattacks, cyberthieves and computer bugs. Digital currency is also highly volatile and can be impacted by a single tweet, political situation, news post, or world event."   MORE >>

"Making the decision to stay in or move out of the plan is complex and highly individual, which is why DCIIA compiled [this] list of pros and cons to help guide plan sponsors and participants alike. [This article also includes] tips for plan sponsors on how to encourage participants to remain invested as well as compiling a 'how to' partner with your recordkeeper."   MORE >>

"This settlement with Washington University is remarkably similar to the settlements of other recent 403(b) lawsuits. These are now very common terms and precedent has been set not only with this case, but with several others preceding it including the Supreme Court case earlier this year of Hughes v. Northwestern University.... [P]lan sponsors can easily avoid these situations as the settlement terms can be viewed as a guide for best practices in fulfilling your role as a plan fiduciary."   MORE >>

"[1] Safe harbor plan design ... [2] Automatic enrollment ... [3] Class exclusions ... [4] Nonqualified deferred compensation plan."   MORE >>

"Apparently long-standing misperceptions about access, matching and cost remain the top barriers to adoption ... [At] a time when many companies are boosting 401(k) benefits to attract and retain employees in a tight labor market, 74% of small businesses are still going without any plan at all."   MORE >>

"Only 16 percent of pension plans have fully embedded the goal of producing net zero carbon emissions into their asset allocation process ... While 42 percent of the pension plans said they are in the implementation phase, only 28 percent have set interim targets. The result: Sixty percent of pension plans don't believe they will achieve the net zero target[.]"   MORE >>

"[T]he nonpartisan Senior Citizens League updated its 2023 COLA estimate to 8.6%, somewhat lower than last month's 8.9% estimate. The update came after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its latest consumer price index report."   MORE >>

"The simple fact remains that the Form 5500 'recordkeeping' fee number is a total compensation amount that includes transaction costs which are not related to the cost to perform recordkeeping services. It is total fees to the recordkeeper, and not the total recordkeeping costs.... This is not an isolated occurrence."   MORE >>

"In a recently issued Chief Counsel Advice Memorandum, Generic Legal Advice Memorandum (GLAM) 2022-001 , the IRS concluded that deferred compensation expense that is deductible in years subsequent to the enactment of the section 250 deduction for foreign-derived intangible income (FDII) but which relates to services provided in pre-FDII years should be allocated to FDII, even though FDII did not exist in the prior years to which the compensation relates. This position stands opposite to previous informal guidance issued by the IRS in the context of prior section 199, with the new GLAM stating that it 'reflects the reconsidered advice' of the IRS and that prior guidance from 2009 is obsolete."   MORE >>