When a retirement plan participant files a lawsuit to recover damages from harm due to the plan sponsor’s alleged breach of fiduciary duty, employers and plan administrators must furnish certain plan documents on demand.
While the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) requires the production of relevant materials, employers and plan administrators are not required to undertake any extensive searches
By Philip Koehler and Anne Hall (January 20, 2022)
Litigation against Employee Retirement Income Security Act retirement and health plan sponsors and administrators has plagued workplace fiduciaries for the last two decades. Then, in 2020, ERISA lawsuits reached unprecedented levels and affected fiduciaries of ERISA retirement and health plans nationwide. Unwary 401(k) and 403(b) plan sponsors, fiduciaries and service providers
There are many emerging issues for fiduciaries of 401(k) and 403(b) plans. These issues include the Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) regulation of ERISA investment duties and ESG considerations, as well as its recently re-proposed rule regarding the same. Compared to the prior rule enacted by the Trump administration at the end of 2020, the latest proposal represents a significant shift
On November 15, 2021, President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (the “IIJA”) into law. The President stated that the public would start seeing the infrastructure package’s effects within the next two to three months.
A group of bipartisan Senators reached an agreement with the Biden Administration on an infrastructure package that contains various elements of the President’s
The Department of Labor (“DOL”) has increased its focus on the cybersecurity practices of plan sponsors and their service providers. As a result, the DOL has started to ask comprehensive cybersecurity questions in plan audits. It seems apparent that the DOL is concerned with the misuse of confidential participant data, in addition to the theft of plan data or assets.
In November 2021, a California federal court dismissed a suit claiming that LinkedIn Corp. kept underperforming funds in its $817 million retirement fund. The judge in the case, in re: LinkedIn ERISA Litigation, (5:20-cv-05704), U.S. District Court (N.D. Cal.), U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila, dismissed the proposed class action but with leave to amend and add additional facts.
Plan
Before 2020, the IRS historically mandated that an employer must adopt an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), and any other retirement plan, no later than the end of the first tax year in which the employer wanted to claim a deduction for plan contributions.
Effective December 31, 2019, Section 201 of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act
Effective November 15, 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a final rule finalizing the provisions of the September 6, 2016, interim final rule that adjusted the maximum civil monetary penalty (CMP) amounts, for inflation, for all agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services.
These include penalties that apply to violations of the Health Insurance
In McKenna v. ZO Skin Health, Inc., 2021 WL 4078291 (N.D. Ohio 2021), an employee sued two of her employers and their third party administrators (“TPA”) after she was denied coverage under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (“COBRA”).
After a cancer diagnosis, plaintiff Vicki McKenna elected COBRA after being terminated by her employer, PuraCap Pharmaceutical LLC
The IRS added answers to some frequently asked questions (FAQs) on whether rehiring a retiree causes the employee to lose bona fide retirement status. It also issued some FAQs on in-service distributions to individuals who continue to work.
The IRS provided this information by adding FAQs concerning Coronavirus-related relief for retirement plans and IRAs. The FAQs cover the application of