The DOL recently issued Field Assistance Bulletin 2014-01 which details procedures fiduciaries should take to find missing participants and properly distribute account balances. The Bulletin suggests that fiduciaries use certified mail, check related plan and employment records, ask the designated plan beneficiary, and search the Internet to find missing participants. Fiduciaries should consider more expensive approaches
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) publicly released on July 29, 2014 a report on managed accounts in defined contribution plans. Below is the summary of the report (GAO-14-310). Why GAO Did This Study 401(k) plan sponsors have increasingly offered participants managed accounts— services under which providers manage participants’ 401(k) savings over time by making investment and
Congress has passed, and the President is expected to sign, the Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2014 (the Act). Included in the Act is a revenue-raising provision which expands the use of 25-year smoothing for pension plan funding purposes. The Act should provide some funding relief to many defined benefit plans, although special rules
Rules provide for greater security by giving American families more flexibility to plan for retirement and protect themselves from outliving their savings On July 1, 2014, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service issued final rules regarding longevity annuities, which can help retirees manage their savings and ensure they
In a June 25, 2014 article “Court delivers win to 401(k) plaintiffs,” Chuck Epstein reports that employers could be held liable for holding company stock inside ESOP and 401(k) plans, especially if the stock falls in price and company executives failed to act to prevent the losses. That was the upshot of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling
The IRS has issued Notice 2014-35 which provides relief from late-filing penalties from the annual reporting requirements under Form 5500 series with respect to employee benefit plans. Under the notice, the IRS will not impose penalties relating to the filing of Form 5500, Form 5500-SF, and Form 8955-SSA or the filing of required actuarial reports with
On April 4, 2014, the IRS issued Notice 2014-19, which provides guidance on how qualified retirement plans should treat the marriages of same-sex couples following the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor. The Windsor decision invalidated Section 3 of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that barred married same-sex couples from being treated as married under