"This document reopens the comment period with respect to amendments to the Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program [VFCP] ... and to the proposed amendment to Prohibited Transaction Exemption 2002-51 , both published in the Federal Register on November 21, 2022. [EBSA] ... solicited comment from interested persons by January 20, 2023. On December 29, 2022, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, which includes a provision pertaining to the VFC Program, was signed into law. The Department is reopening the comment period to allow commenters to address any issues raised by the new statutory provision."   MORE >>

"On February 11, 2023, PBGC will begin accepting applications for Special Financial Assistance for eligible plans in  Priority Group 6 . Priority Group 6 includes those plans for which PBGC projects a present value of financial assistance payments under section 4261 of ERISA that would exceed $1 billion in the absence of SFA."   MORE >>

"Here are the seven SECURE 2.0 required reports or actions to be taken or that are due from the federal agencies that provide insight to key stakeholders about the state of U.S. retirement policy and the need for such guidance."   MORE >>

"[T]his new rule would permit self-correction of most plan issues without any IRS filing.... SECURE 2.0 provides that retirement plan fiduciaries are not required to attempt to recover inadvertent benefit overpayments made to participants or beneficiaries and includes additional requirements if the responsible plan fiduciary does attempt to recover overpayments[.]"   MORE >>

"SECURE 2.0 provides plan fiduciaries with additional options for handling retirement plan overpayments. They may seek recoupment subject to the statutory guardrails in place or choose to forgo recoupment and be able to avoid a breach of fiduciary duty, provided prudent procedures were in place to avoid overpayments."   MORE >>

"In Kentucky, Maine, Colorado and Nevada, individual retirement accounts are considered abandoned if they are unclaimed three years after the participant turns age 70.5, which was the RMD age prior to the first SECURE Act, passed in 2019. After 2033, therefore, if participants wait until age 75 before taking the RMD, their IRAs could be considered abandoned when they hit age 73.5, absent any legislative change from their respective states."   MORE >>

"In response to a comment from a multiemployer pension fund with an alternative withdrawal liability allocation method ... that the requirement to use mass withdrawal assumptions and to phase-in SFA as a plan asset could incentivize employers to withdraw in some cases, the PBGC added a process for plans to request exceptions from those requirements under narrow circumstances. The details of the process are outlined in the update to the final regulations."   MORE >>

"The fiduciary standards in [ERISA] require that individuals who make decisions for private-sector pension plans (referred to as fiduciaries) adhere to specified standards of conduct.... Over the years, investors -- including pension plan sponsors and participants -- have taken an interest in investment features beyond the standard risk and return relationship ... Policymakers' opinions vary as to the appropriateness of these types of investments within pension plans." [IF12328 Feb. 10, 2023]   MORE >>

21 pages. "In December 2022, about 2.0 million people (or about 3% of all Social Security beneficiaries) were affected by the WEP.... Recent legislation has generally proposed either to eliminate the provision for all or some affected beneficiaries, or replace the current-law provision with a new proportional formula based on past earnings from both covered and noncovered employment." [98-35 updated Feb. 13, 2023]   MORE >>

"[T]his decision leaves the matter of enforceability of these arbitration clauses in a bit of a muddle.... [T]he Second, Sixth, and Seventh circuits have recently issued rulings allowing these cases to stay in court, while the Ninth Circuit has previously granted Charles Schwab Corporation's bid for arbitration over its retirement plan investments." [ Harrison v. Envision Mgmt. Holding, Inc. Bd. of Directors , No. 22-1098 (10th Cir. Feb. 9, 2023)]   MORE >>

"[One study] shows that 70% of employees don't want to save in a state-run plan,... [B]etween May and August 2022, 33% to 37.5% of eligible, auto-enrolled employees opted out of participating in CalSavers.... There is a disconnect between the low interest ... and participation figures, at least from California, where more than 60% of the automatically enrolled employees stay in CalSavers."   MORE >>