On July 31, 2015, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2015-12, Plan Accounting: Defined Benefit Pension Plans (Topic 960), Defined Contribution Pension Plans (Topic 962), Health and Welfare Benefit Plans (Topic 965): (Part I) Fully Benefit-Responsive Investment Contracts, (Part II) Plan Investment Disclosures, (Part III) Measurement Date Practical Expedient (consensuses of the Emerging Issues
Notice 2015-49, Use of Lump Sum Payments to Replace Lifetime Income Being Received By Retirees Under Defined Benefit Pension Plans, informs taxpayers that the Treasury Department and the IRS intend to amend the required minimum distribution regulations under § 401(a)(9) of the Internal Revenue Code to address the use of lump sum payments to replace
In its report, the Employee Plans (EP) Subcommittee reviewed the current status of the 403(b) community, with specific focus on areas that have resulted in a lower level of compliance with the Code and created excess operational costs. In the EP Subcommittee’s recommendations, it attempted to balance the needs of the 403(b) community with the
As we had previously reported, the Office of the Chief Accountant (OCA), Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), has recently completed an assessment of the quality of audit work performed by independent qualified public accountants (IQPAs) with respect to financial statement audits of employee benefit plans covered under the Employee Retirement
The FASB issued on May 1, 2014 Accounting Standards Update 2015-07, Fair Value Measurement (Topic 820), Disclosures for Investments in Certain Entities That Calculate Net Asset Value per Share (or Its Equivalent). The amendments in Accounting Standards Update 2015-07 (the Update) remove the requirement to categorize within the fair value hierarchy all investments for which
As expected, the FASB proposed three Accounting Standards Updates (ASUs) aimed at simplifying accounting for employee benefit plans. According to the AICPA Journal of Accountancy, the updates were the result of consensuses of FASB’s Emerging Issues Task Force. The three proposed ASUs for plan accounting were included in one exposure draft: Proposed ASU, Plan Accounting: Defined
On April 14, 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor has released a proposed rule that they believe will protect 401(k) and IRA investors by mitigating the effect of conflicts of interest in the retirement investment marketplace. A White House Council of Economic Advisers analysis found that these conflicts of interest result in annual losses of about 1