At PlanPILOT, we assist clients in not only achieving their goals and satisfying their fiduciary responsibilities today but in continually looking ahead to ensure a dynamic plan and benefit. The industry and the role of retirement plans are evolving so swiftly that, while plan sponsors don’t need to be cutting edge, they do need to take steps to keep up with the changes. The last thing you want is to wake up one day and realize that your plan is stuck in the past.
In April, the US Department of Labor (DOL) released the long-awaited and highly contested final rule redefining who is considered a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). This revision was designed to address conflicts of interest in retirement advice by applying the fiduciary standard more broadly, to include everyone who provides investment advice to sponsors and participants in defined contribution workplace retirement plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs). How will the DOL fiduciary rule affect plan sponsors?
Since August 9, lawsuits have been filed against 9 different universities for various ERISA claims. For about ten years, 401k litigation has been going on and now eager lawyers are extending it over to 403b plans. Columbia, Emory, MIT, NYU, Yale, Duke, Johns Hopkins, UPenn, and Vanderbilt now find themselves forced to defend the management of their 403(b) plans in court. Could you be next?
Plan sponsors know that there are more liabilities and regulations to worry about than ever before. There are constant concerns about IRS rules, fiduciary responsibilities, and tax law changes. Failure to comply with regulations can be an expensive disaster, with the ever-looming threat of losing your plan’s qualified status.
April 30, 2016, was the IRS deadline for employers to restate their 401(k), profit-sharing, or other defined contribution (not including 403(b) plans) retirement plans. Failure to comply with new regulations could result in significant IRS fines as well as loss of a plan’s qualified status.