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Benefits & ERISA Law

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Focuses on developments in the world of employee benefits.
By Nick Curabba et al.

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Last Entry: November 11, 2008 at 22:33:32

Sen. Baucus Marks Out Turf on Health Care Reform

Posted on November 11, 2008
Sen. Baucus Marks Out Turf on Health Care Reform Written by: Nick Curabba Wasting little time to begin the debate over health care reform, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), chair of the Senate Finance Committee wrote to President-Elect...

403(b) Talk on YouTube

Posted on November 10, 2008
403(b) Talk on YouTube Written by: Nick Curabba Kudos to the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators (NAGDCA) for bringing Bob Architect to the YouTube generation. Following the link here will bring you to a...

Change Election Produces Little So Far on the Hill

Posted on November 06, 2008
Change Election Produces Little So Far on the Hill Written By: Nick Curabba Despite the undeniable impact the "change" element had in the Presidential election, as BNA reported this morning, the leadership of the key Congressional committees...

Congress May Address 'Fundamental' Retirement Plan Reform

Posted on October 23, 2008
Congress May Address 'Fundamental' Retirement Plan Reform Written by Nick Curabba For the second time in as many weeks, Rep. George Miller (D-CA) has hinted that broad and sweeping legislation addressing the U.S. retirement system may be in the...

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RMDs Make the Big Time

Posted on October 13, 2008
RMDs Make the Big Time Written by: Nick Curabba While the world's finance chiefs convened over the week to staunch the global market collapse, U.S. Presidential candidates John McCain and Barrack Obama were proposing one "fix" in...

LaRue and the Participant Disclosure Regulations

Posted on October 09, 2008
LaRue and the Participant Disclosure Regulations Written by: Bob Toth We have commented in the past on how the REAL impact of the DOL?s ?three pronged? disclosure effort lies not in each discrete set of rules, but...

Retirement Plans and the Troubled Asset Relief Program

Posted on September 30, 2008
Retirement Plans and the Troubled Asset Relief Program Written by Both Toth and Nick Curabba Set against the dramatic House vote and ensuing market plunge yesterday, it might be easy to overlook the possible direct implications the...

DC Plans, Distributed Annuities, Spousal Consent and QJSAs

Posted on September 26, 2008
DC Plans, Distributed Annuities, Spousal Consent and QJSAs Writte by Bob Toth One of the most nagging issues related to distributing annuities from defined contribution plans is how and when to apply the spousal consent and...

403(b) Rollovers vs. 403(b) Exchanges

Posted on September 23, 2008
403(b) Rollovers vs. 403(b) Exchanges Written by: Bob Toth A law school classmate and partner at a major Michigan law firm dropped me a note the other day. She had one of those tricky 403(b) questions that...

The DOL's New Math: Form 5500 + 408(b)(2) = Fireworks

Posted on September 11, 2008
The DOL's New Math: Form 5500 + 408(b)(2) = Fireworks Written by Bob Toth "Were there any nonexempt transactions with any party in interest?" Plan administrators have been answering that question (or versions of it) on...

'Two' Works for 403(b) Plans

Posted on September 08, 2008
'Two' Works for 403(b) Plans Written by: Bob Toth At long last, a DOL official has spoken publicly about what constitutes a "reasonable choice" under its 403(b) "safe harbor," 2510.3-2(f)(3)(vii). At stake here is the answer...

The New 403(b) Plan Documents and ERISA

Posted on August 29, 2008
The New 403(b) Plan Documents and ERISA Written by: Bob Toth As we sit down and attempt to craft our new 403(b) plan documents to meet the January 1 deadline, that dreaded question of whether or not...

DOL Advises on Advice

Posted on August 26, 2008
DOL Advises on Advice By Nick Curabba Readers of this blog have no doubt noticed the Department of Labor's latest pieces of regulatory guidance on investment advice (proposed regulations and a proposed class exemption). The guidance was issued...

DOL's New Thinking on Schedule C

Posted on July 18, 2008
DOL's New Thinking on Schedule C Written by: Nick Curabba Kudos to fellow blogger (and lawyer) Andrew Oringer who, writing for BNA's Pension and Benefits Blog on the new Department of Labor FAQs on Schedule C of...

Clarifying 'Information Sharing Agreements'

Posted on July 15, 2008
Clarifying 'Information Sharing Agreements' Written by Bob Toth The new 403(b) regulations introduced a new term of art into the industry, the "Information Sharing Agreement." Conversations that I have had with a number of consultants, attorneys...

Annuitization Publication

Posted on July 09, 2008
Annuitization Publication Written by: Bob Toth We have mentioned the use of annuities a few times on this blog, and we recently published an article with CCH which explained how the Qualified Plan Distributed Annuity (the "QPDA")...

Investment Advice Arrangements Meet Plaintiffs' Lawyers

Posted on July 08, 2008
Investment Advice Arrangements Meet Plaintiffs' Lawyers Written by: Nick Curabba With so much attention being paid these days to the Department of Labor's fee disclosure initiative, it may be easy to overlook another significant piece...

Ways and Means Committee to Discuss IRAs

Posted on June 26, 2008
Ways and Means Committee to Discuss IRAs Written by Nick Curabba In advance of today's hearing of a subcommitee of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Joint Committee on Taxation has issued a report detailing the...

DC DB-ification Picking Up Steam

Posted on June 17, 2008
DC DB-ification Picking Up Steam Written by: Nick Curabba It seems to us that there has been more and more attention paid to an issue we have blogged about here -- annuitization from defined contribution plans. As...

403(b) Commissions: In Defense Of (Reasonable) Compensation

Posted on June 10, 2008
403(b) Commissions: In Defense Of (Reasonable) Compensation Written by: Bob Toth With all the focus being paid these days to those "evil" 403(b) commissions, we think it's time to present an argument in defense of reasonable compensation...

Automatic Annuitization Proposed

Posted on June 06, 2008
Automatic Annuitization Proposed Written by Nick Curabba Defined contribution plan participants would automatically get temporary annuity-like benefit distributions under a new proposal floated today by several authors affiliated with the Retirement Security Project...

ERISA is Cool, After All...

Posted on May 27, 2008
ERISA is Cool, After All... Written by: Nick Curabba Any blogger cool enough to mention rocker Meatloaf, punk band The Clash, and ERISA all in one post deserves credit. But combine all that, as Jerry Kalish of...

Large AND Small 403(b) Plans: Beware of Schedules H and I

Posted on May 23, 2008
Large AND Small 403(b) Plans: Beware of Schedules H and I Written by: Bob Toth Practitioners and financial service companies are all well aware of the new ways in which the Form 5500 rules apply to...

White House Orders End-of-Term Reg Slowdown

Posted on May 22, 2008
White House Orders End-of-Term Reg Slowdown Written by Nick Curabba That loud shuffling noise you hear is the sound of federal regulators preparing proposed regulations for publication in the Federal Register in advance of a newly imposed...

More on QDIA Guidance...

Posted on May 12, 2008
More on QDIA Guidance Written by Nick Curabba As we noted on this blog last week, the Department of Labor's new FAB 2008-03 provides some guidance on how the notice requirements of the new QDIA regulations work. In...

To Redline or To Not Redline...

Posted on May 09, 2008
To Redline or To Not Redline... Written by Nick Curabba Back in February, we blogged about the IRS's odd new requirement to provide redlined plan documents with Cycle C determination letter requests. It appears that....

A Fly in the Ointment: Transparency, Annuity Contracts, and State Insurance Departments

Posted on May 07, 2008
A Fly in the Ointment: Transparency, Annuity Contracts, and State Insurance Departments Written by: Jared Danilson With the DOL's increasing focus on fee transparency and disclosure, and with the growing market for annuities in defined contribution plans,...

DOL Clarifies QDIA Notice Requirements

Posted on May 05, 2008
DOL Clarifies QDIA Notice Requirements Written by: Nick Curabba More than four months after the Department of Labor's qualified default investment alternative regulations became effective, the Department last week issued much needed guidance clarifying the rule's application...

Muddying the DC Waters: A Case for Simplification

Posted on April 28, 2008
Muddying the DC Waters: A Case for Simplification Written by: Nick Curabba We have blogged here in the past about the "DB-ification" of defined contributions plans. By it we mean simply that as traditional defined benefit plans continue to be...

House Committee Would Require Greater 401(k) Disclosure

Posted on April 18, 2008
House Committee Would Require Greater 401(k) Disclosure Written by: Nick Curabba The House Committee on Education and Labor this week favorably reported expansive fee disclosure legislation sponsored by Chairman George Miller (D-CA)...

House Set to Pass Taxpayer Assistance Bill with Benefits-Related Provisions

Posted on April 15, 2008
House Set to Pass Taxpayer Assistance Bill with Benefits-Related Provisions Written by: Nick Curabba The House of Representatives today has scheduled a vote on the Taxpayer Assistance and Simplification Act of 2008 (HR 5719)...

DOL Weighs in on Fee Disclosure

Posted on April 11, 2008
DOL Weighs in on Fee Disclosure Written by: Nick Curabba With all the recent attention to fee disclosure regulations and legislation, it may have been tempting to forget about all those law suits currently pending against plan...

Distributing 403(b) Annuities, Part II

Posted on April 04, 2008
Distributing 403(b) Annuities, Part II: The 403(b) Plan Distributed Annuity Written by: Bob Toth As we had noted in a previous blog on this issue, the new 403(b) regulations permit the distribution of a "fully paid individual...

NAIC Weighs in on MetLife v Glenn

Posted on April 02, 2008
NAIC Weighs in on MetLife v Glenn Written by: Nick Curabba Hat Tip to Roy Harmon at the Health Law Blog for this interesting development in the MetLife v. Glenn case (about which we have blogged already). It appears...

ERISA and Mom

Posted on March 28, 2008
ERISA and Mom Written by: Bob Toth ERISA wonks such as ourselves tend to get lost in the press of details which seem to flow non-stop from our regulators and legislators in D.C. It is sometimes helpful...

Supreme Court Turns Back AARP

Posted on March 25, 2008
Supreme Court Turns Back AARP Written by: Nick Curabba It looks like SCOTUS knows how to turn down an ERISA case, after all. In a term that has seen the High Court hand down a...

Studies Support DC DB-ification

Posted on March 21, 2008
Studies Support DC DB-ification Written by: Nick Curabba The very good and frequently updated Retirement Plan Blog by Jerry Kalish at National Benefits Service last week reminded us again that the world as we know it is...

'Distributing' 403(b) Annuities

Posted on March 18, 2008
'Distributing' 403(b) Annuities New 403(b) Regulations Raise More Questions Than Answers Written by: Bob Toth The IRS's decision to permit the termination of 403(b) plans, and the distribution of its assets, raises a new issue which vendors,...

IRS Agents Reprimanded

Posted on March 14, 2008
IRS Agents Reprimanded Written by Nick Curabba Practitioners have been grumbling for some time about the often quirky way in which the Internal Revenue Service administers its determination letter program, but it?s not often that the Service...

House Committee Set to Act on PPA Technical Corrections

Posted on March 12, 2008
House Committee Set to Act on PPA Technical Corrections Written by Nick Curabba As reported in BNA Pension & Benefits Daily (subscription required) this morning, the House Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to report out the Pension Protection...

Securities Laws and 403(b) Plans

Posted on March 10, 2008
Securities Laws and 403(b) Plans: Prospectus Delivery, Free Transferability, Rule 22c-2, and Other Things That Go Bump In The Night Written by: Bob Toth One of the most striking differences between 403(b) plans and 401(k) plans is...

Read 'Em and Weep List

Posted on March 07, 2008
Read 'Em and Weep List Final Schedule C Includes Extensive New Codes Written by: Nick Curabba In addition to more fulsome disclosure of revenue sharing and other types of indirect fees that plan service providers charge, the final...

Just in Time?

Posted on March 05, 2008
Just in Time? Posted by: Nick Curabba As Phil Gutwein mentioned on this blog earlier, the Supreme Court is to set to hear oral arguments on MetLife v. Glenn, which involves the appropriate standard of review of...

Bloggers React to LaRue

Posted on March 03, 2008
Bloggers React to LaRue Written by: Nick Curabba There has been a deluge of LaRue coverage in the blogosphere since the Supreme Court handed down its unanimous decision last month. Much of the commentary (including ours) predicts the...

A Potentially Dangerous 'Safe Harbor'

Posted on February 29, 2008
A Potentially Dangerous 'Safe Harbor' Written by: Nick Curabba and Bob Toth Participant contributions to small employee benefit plans will not be considered "plan assets" before being placed in the plan if they are deposited within seven business...

DOL 'Preempts' Congress

Posted on February 25, 2008
DOL 'Preempts' Congress Written by: Nick Curabba The Department of Labor last week posted on its website Advisory Opinion 2008-02A expressing its opinion that, at least when it comes to ERISA preemption, Congress is?well?kind of irrelevant...

The 'Changing Landscape' of ERISA Litigation

Posted on February 23, 2008
The 'Changing Landscape' of ERISA Litigation Written by: Nick Curabba February 20, 2008 -- A unanimous Supreme Court today ruled that an individual 401(k) plan participant can sue under ERISA to recover losses to his account allegedly caused...

What's Old is New Again: 'Harris Trust' Makes a Comeback

Posted on February 22, 2008
What's Old is New Again: 'Harris Trust' Makes a Comeback Written by Bob Toth Yes, Virginia, there is a Harris Trust (with apologies to Francis Church). No, my friends, Harris Trust has never really gone away. But it...

Alarming Question: MetLife v. Glenn

Posted on February 21, 2008
Alarming Question: MetLife v. Glenn Written by: Philip J. Gutwein II In the wake of yesterday's landmark decision in LaRue, it may be tempting to think that the Supreme Court will leave ERISA alone for the rest of the term. No such...

Sovereign Immunity for School Districts 403(b) Fiduciary Choices?

Posted on February 19, 2008
Sovereign Immunity for School Districts 403(b) Fiduciary Choices? Written by: Bob Toth Many professionals have been advising certain governmental employers for a while that just because ERISA doesn't apply to their 403(b) plans, state trust and fiduciary laws...

Annuity Framing Matters

Posted on February 14, 2008
Annuity Framing Matters Written by: Nick Curabba Here is an interesting post from Tim Burnes, blogger at Fiduciary Investor, about the virtues of deferred retirement annuities. Also known in some circles as "longevity insurance," these are annuity products designed to guard against...

FMLA: One Way to Define a Service Member's 'Qualifying Exigency'

Posted on February 13, 2008
FMLA: One Way to Define a Service Member's 'Qualifying Exigency' Written by: Bob Kistler The recent extension of the Family and Medical Leave Act permits certain relatives and the spouses of active duty service members to take unpaid...

Privacy and the New 403(b) Rules

Posted on February 11, 2008
Privacy and the New 403(b) Rules Written by: Bob Toth For all the talk of consolidated plan administration in the 403(b) world in the wake of the IRS's new regulations, there's a real monster lurking in the bushes...

Cycle C Applications: Will the Service 'Accept or Reject'?

Posted on February 07, 2008
Cycle C Applications: Will the Service 'Accept or Reject'? Thanks to the PPA Blog for this good catch: Looks like the IRS will require some additional documentation for the next round of determination letter applications. In addition to the standard...

Those Proposed Fee Disclosure Regs?.

Posted on February 06, 2008
Those Proposed Fee Disclosure Regs?. Written by: Bob Toth, Nick Curabba What better topic to kick off a benefits blog than the issue of the day: fee disclosure? The recently proposed � 408(b)(2) regulations are sure to generate...

Welcome

Posted on February 05, 2008
Welcome to our new blog! The Benefits and Executive Compensation Group at Baker & Daniels is pleased to start this new forum for topical employee benefits issues. In addition to discussions of how benefit law developments affect plan sponsors and...