This election generally must be made (for a calendar plan) by October 15, 2020.
The Department of Labor’s regulatory agenda includes a “deregulatory” project on ERISA rules for proxy voting. In this article we review current DOL rules on proxy voting and consider some of the issues that may come up under this (de)regulation project. Background – April 2019 Executive Order In April 2019 President Trump issued an “Executive…Read More
On July 31, 2019, DOL published a Notice of Prohibited Transaction Exemption (PTE) Involving Retirement Clearinghouse, LLC (RCH), addressing a potential prohibited transaction issue presented by RCH’s clearinghouse “locate, match, and transfer” model. In what follows, we begin with a discussion of the RCH clearinghouse model generally. Then we review the PTE, consider sponsor fiduciary…Read More
Frequently Asked Questions Class action lawsuits were recently filed against five large defined benefit plan sponsors and their plan committees. The complaints allege that participants’ early retirement or optional benefits (i.e., joint and survivor annuities) were understated due to the use of outdated and unreasonable plan actuarial assumptions or conversion factors. A prudent response against these…Read More
Blockchain technology is currently being developed as a way to fundamentally transform our systems for, e.g., authenticating securities transactions and tracking securities ownership. In this article we review the possible impact of blockchain technology on retirement plan administration. Background We generally use the term “blockchain” to describe what might more accurately be described as “distributed…Read More
On June 20, 2018, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Pearce v. Chrysler, reversed a lower court decision in favor of the plan sponsor (Chrysler) on the issue of whether a participant may bring an equitable claim for plan reformation based on a conflict between the terms of a summary plan description (SPD) and…Read More
Basic Assumptions Contribution Earnings rate (%) Years in plan Annual Household Income at Contribution Annual Household Income at Distribution Filing StatusSingleMarried Filing JointlyMarried Filing SeparatelyHead of Household Tax earnings yearly?YesNo Calculate October Three does not provide legal or tax advice, and the information provided above is general in nature and should not be considered legal…Read More
ERISA requires that when an employer leaves a multi-employer pension plan, the plan actuaries calculate a complete or partial withdrawal liability in order to shore up any proportionate underfunding that could arise in the future. There are two key aspects of withdrawal liability — the method for determining a withdrawing employer’s allocable share of the…Read More
In March 2018 there was a possibility that all or part of the Senate’s bipartisan Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act of 2018 (RESA), which addressed a number of important retirement policy issues, would be included in omnibus spending legislation that was passed on March 23, 2018. That ultimately did not happen, because of objections raised…Read More
We concluded our article Fiduciary Rule vacated: significance for plan sponsors with the observation that sponsor fiduciaries will want to review follow-on guidance on broker/adviser conduct that the Department of Labor or the Securities and Exchange Commission publishes. On April 18, 2018, the SEC, by a 4-1 vote, proposed (1) a “Regulation Best Interest” providing…Read More