The Trump Administration has released its final rule on Association Health Plans (AHPs). This has been a long-debated topic. Advocates feel that groups in the same trade, industry, line of business or profession – or those that exist within the boundaries of the same state or metropolitan region – should be able to band together to have… [Read More]
Don’t go requiring your financial advisor to be a plan fiduciary just yet! In a March 15, 2018 decision, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Department of Labor’s (DOL) new fiduciary rule in its entirety. The rule, which became effective June 9 of last year, was due to be fully implemented on… [Read More]
Well, the 60-day delay in implementing the Department of Labor’s new Fiduciary Rule came to an end with a big fat goose egg in the results column. This new rule – which requires all financial advisors providing services to retirement plans to put their clients’ interests of ahead of their own – has been a… [Read More]
On April 4, the Department of Labor delayed the start of the new Fiduciary Rule by 60 days. Put simply, the rule requires financial advisors to put the interests of their clients ahead of their own. Originally due to become applicable on April 10, the date has been pushed back to June 9. While there have… [Read More]
On April 5, 2016, the Department of Labor announced the long-awaited final version of its updated fiduciary regulations. As expected, the new rules broaden the definition of who should be considered a fiduciary for any accounts with investment features, such as retirement plans, individual retirement account (IRA) and health savings account (HSA). The intent of… [Read More]
When the Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced proposed regulations updating the ERISA definition of a fiduciary, many industry heavyweights publicly proclaimed that this was going to hurt the small investors by causing brokers to exit that end of the market. Meanwhile, some advisors have used the news to call my clients, warning them how… [Read More]
If you’re like many of our clients, you probably know that you are required to submit annual Form 5500 reporting for your company’s pension and 401(k) plans. But a surprisingly high number of clients are not aware that they need to submit Form 5500 reporting for health and welfare plans as well. The criteria of… [Read More]
Think you can pay cash to incentivize employees to waive coverage under an employer-sponsored health plan? Think again. On November 6 in FAQ 22, the DOL made clear that cash paid to reimburse individual market policies would subject the employer to excise tax whether the reimbursement was a pre-tax or post-tax payment. Interesting. And perhaps… [Read More]
It’s been a year since the DOL Fee Disclosure regulations went into effect and the question is: Where do we stand? It’s a good time to measure the impact of these regulations on the retirement industry and whether they achieved their intended goal of better decision making by participants. Well, from the participant standpoint, reaction… [Read More]
Compliance is not just an ACA issue. In 1974, ERISA was passed to establish employees’ rights and employers’ obligations and really to unclog the court systems from matters pertaining to pension and welfare plans. There is a lot of fine print in those rules—which are often overlooked until there is a complaint lodged or until… [Read More]
