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Be Careful What You Wish For: The Proposed 401(k) Regulations Are Here!
Journal of Pension Benefits, Winter 2004, Vol. 11, Number 2.
May 6, 2004
It is good to have additional guidance about 401(k) plans. Nonetheless, much of the proposed regulations appear likely to make administering these plans more complicated, and plan administrators are left with no resolution to commonly asked questions. Article republished with permission from the Journal of Pension Benefits, Winter 2004, Vol. 11, Number 2, Copyright 2004, Aspen Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. For more information call 800-868-8437 or visit www.aspenpublishers.com.
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Sidestepping the Pitfalls of Plan Administration
Journal of Pension Benefits, Winter 2004, Vol. 11, Number 2.
May 6, 2004
It is possible to draw a complete roadmap to what it takes for a plan and a TPA firm to run perfectly. However, acknowledging and addressing the pitfalls in this article can give both the plan sponsor and the service provider an edge on having a good result. Article republished with permission from the Journal of Pension Benefits, Winter 2004, Vol. 11, Number 2, Copyright 2004, Aspen Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. For more information call 800-868-8437 or visit www.aspenpublishers.com
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The Enron Litigation: Lots of Noise, Only a Little Substance So Far
Journal of Pension Benefits
May 6, 2004
As practitioners, we must spend more time advising our corporate clients of the duties that the board of directors, the administrative committees, and the trustees assume when they sign on the dotted line, so that they approach their jobs with more solemnity than they may have in the past. It is incumbent upon those hearing this advice to listen and to act on it.
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Congress Avenges Corporate Fraud: The Sarbanes of a Benefit Professional's Existence
Journal of Employee Benefits, Issues in Administration, Design, Funding and Compliance. Volume 10,
March 17, 2003
Intended, at least in part, to protect 401(k) plan accounts from the effects of corporate fraud, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has missed its mark. Many of its benefits-related provisions merely impose burdensome administrative requirements on plans without offering plan participants any real protection.
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Employee Benefits in Mergers and Acquisitions
October 14, 2002
ATTORNEYS
Thomas R. McNeill
Louis C. Spelios
The book is a Panel publication (which is a subsidiary of Aspen Publishers). It can be purchased from their web site, www.aspenpublishers.com under its Pension & Benefits tab (or search by name).
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What's New in M&A? Scrambled EGTRRA with a Side of Enron
August 16, 2002
EGTRRA's repeal of the same-desk rule and addition of catch-up contributions created problems unique to 401(k) plans in an M&A context - problems that Treasury has addressed in an IRS notice and proposed regulations.
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Participant Loans: So, What's Still Bothering You?
Here we are, nearly 20 years after Congress enacted Code Section 72(p), and we still find that participant loans are one of the greatest challenges to effective and efficient plan operations. Why is that?
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The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA)
January 22, 2001
The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA), signed into law recently by President Bush, contains many improvements in the law for pension and profit sharing plans. The culmination of many years of proposed legislation and lobbying by benefits organizations, EGTRRA will allow both employers and employees to contribute more to plans and relieves some of the administrative burden of tax-qualified plans.
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Age Discrimination In Employment Act ("ADEA")
An automatic deferral (also known as a negative election) feature in a 401(k) plan provides that unless there is an affirmative election by an employee to the contrary, the employer automatically withholds a certain percentage (e.g., 3%) from that employee's pay and defers it as a 401(k) contribution.
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Department of Labor Issues Final Rules Relating To Small Plan Audit Exemption
October 19, 2000
Sponsors of employee benefit plans that hold assets must generally file an annual report on Form 5500, including financial statements audited by an independent public accountant.
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Employee Benefits Update
On March 28, 2002, the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (the "PWBA") of the Department of Labor (the "DOL") released a much anticipated revision to its procedures for filing late Forms 5500. The revised Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program (the "DFVC Program") significantly reduces penalties and updates the procedures to correspond with the current Form 5500.
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Notice 2002-3 Safe Harbor Explanation
November 30, 1999
Today, the Internal Revenue Service released Notice 2002-3, which includes an updated Safe Harbor Explanation for plan distributions. The updated Safe Harbor Explanation takes into account changes that the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 made to the eligible rollover distribution rules. The new explanation must be used for all distributions made on or after April 14, 2002.
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