The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (“PBGC”) is expanding its Missing Participants Program to terminated 401(k) and other plans in an effort to connect more people to their retirement savings. “PBGC’s expanded Missing Participants Program addresses an important problem and meets the needs of our stakeholders,” said PBGC Director Tom Reeder. Read More
The U.S. Department of Labor has announced an 18-month extension from Jan. 1, 2018, to July 1, 2019, of the special Transition Period for the Fiduciary Rule’s Best Interest Contract Exemption and the Principal Transactions Exemption, and of the applicability of certain amendments to Prohibited Transaction Exemption 84-24 (PTEs). Read More
The IRS’s Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division has issued a memo in which it instructs its examiners not to challenge a qualified plan that can’t locate a retired participant, for failing to meet the required minimum distribution (RMD) standards, if the plan meets certain requirements. Read More
President Trump signed into law H.R. 3823, the “Disaster Tax Relief and Airport and Airway Extension Act of 2017”, which delivers temporary tax relief for retirement plans as well as other tax relief to the victims of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria while reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for six months. Read More
The Internal Revenue Service announced that 401(k)s and similar employer-sponsored retirement plans can make loans and hardship distributions to victims of Hurricane Irma and Harvey and members of their families. This is similar to relief provided last year to Louisiana flood victims and victims of Hurricane Matthew. Read More