09.06.16

Is a Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Plan Right for Your Company?

Nonqualified deferred compensation plans enable key employees to defer a higher proportion of their current income to later years when they retire. While nonqualified plans often are perceived as only for top executives, they may also be right for upper-level staff. This article discusses what plan sponsors need to know about nonqualified deferred compensation plans.

08.02.16

How to Ask the Right Questions Regarding Your Service Provider’s Data Security System

Maintaining data security is a significant part of running any business. Breaches are inevitable — although not at every organization. This article reviews questions to ask when reviewing data security with service providers.

07.12.16

ESOPs Facing Tougher Scrutiny

Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) fiduciaries are facing closer scrutiny by the Department of Labor (DOL), while federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, are weighing in on ESOP cases. This article reminds ESOP sponsors to take a fresh look at how their ESOPs are structured and overseen by fiduciaries.

05.31.16

Be Careful What You Toss: Plan Record Retention Requirements
Stephanie Zaleski-Braatz

As far as the IRS is concerned, you cannot be overly cautious with saving too many retirement plan documents. Plan sponsors, on the other hand, might reasonably feel the need to free up file storage space every now and again by purging documents that are no longer needed. This article examines where to draw the line and also looks at IRS rules for documentation of hardship withdrawals and participant loans.

05.03.16

Give Employees More Bang for Their Buck: How to More Effectively Use Default Deferral Rates and Auto-Escalation Clauses
James Quaid

According to a Plan Sponsor Council of America survey, only 46% of defined contribution plans automatically enroll participants. The most common default deferral rate for those that do is 3%. Are plan sponsors telling employees that they can afford to retire by saving just 3% of their salary each year? Some participants may think so. This article discusses how to use default deferral rates and auto-escalation clauses to boost participants’ retirement savings.

04.05.16

Understanding Welfare Plan Form 5500 Filing Requirements

Welfare plans commonly provide employee benefits, such as medical, dental, life insurance and disability benefits. All welfare plans covered by ERISA are subject to the annual Form 5500 reporting and filing requirements. However, not all ERISA welfare plans must file Form 5500 if they meet one of the exceptions under the law. As a plan sponsor, this article will help you determine whether you need to file Form 5500.

03.02.16

Retirement Plan Loans: The Pros and Cons
James Pellino

According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, more than one-fifth (or 21%) of all 401(k) plan participants eligible for loans have loans outstanding at any given time. Looking out for the best interests of plan participants might involve discouraging them from borrowing against their savings, at least in the absence of a personal financial crisis. This blog summarizes plan loan requirements that all plan fiduciaries should know.

02.02.16

Tibble Case Puts Focus on Fiduciaries’ Ongoing Duties

During 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court clarified the ongoing duty of retirement plan fiduciaries to monitor plan investments. Tibble v. Edison International has been percolating through the federal court system since 2007. The article reviews the case’s focus on the timing of lawsuits against plan fiduciaries for breaches of their fiduciary duty.

01.12.16

How Automatic Are Your 401(k) Plan Investments?

Automatic enrollment of participants in 401(k) plans was designed to overcome the drawbacks of voluntary enrollment by getting more employees to save in their workplace retirement plan. But what to do about plan investments? With automatic enrollment comes a fiduciary duty to direct plan investments for those automatically enrolled participants that do not choose a place to invest their contributions. This article will explore this topic in relation to a safe harbor established by the Department of labor to limit plan sponsor liability for investing contributions on behalf of employees into default investments when employees do not otherwise make an election.

12.08.15

Are You Counting Your Plan Participants Correctly?

As 2015 draws to a close, plan sponsors will begin compiling data for the year-end census and ultimately, the annual reporting filing. Although counting the number of plan participants seems like it would be simple, there are common mistakes that plan sponsors sometimes make when reporting the number of plan participants. This article highlights pitfalls plan sponsors should avoid when reporting these figures.