Employee Benefit Plans
Based on a report from Casey Quirk by Deloitte and McLagan, 72% of money invested into funds went into passive funds in 2015. While the issue for plan sponsors isn’t clear cut, some may see this as a strong case for passive investing. Trending Passive Similar to indexes like the S&P 500 and the Dow…
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So you realized an error was made in the administration of your 401(k) plan’s loans, now what? The IRS will forgive errors involving 401(k) plan loans only when you use the Voluntary Correction Program (“VCP”). Correcting your plan mistakes through the VCP preserves the plan’s tax-favored status. One of the areas with the most frequent…
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Abstract: The IRS has made it a lot simpler for retirement plan participants’ including IRA owners’ to avoid penalties when they screw up a rollover. This brief article discusses new IRS Revenue Procedure 2016-47, which allows participants to “self-confirm” the valid reasons in a formal statement to the receiving financial institution. The IRS has made…
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For critics of the Department of Labor’s (“DOL’s”) proposed overhaul of Form 5500, January 1, 2019, is right around the corner. The current proposals will require setting up systems to collect and report detailed data. Industry commenters have asked the DOL to (1) postpone the proposals until it reviews industry concerns, and (2) consider that the added compliance burdens may discourage small employers from setting up or maintaining employee benefit plans.
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When IRS examiners check under the hood of many retirement plans, they often find internal control deficiencies. The consequences can be severe, even if an IRS audit doesn’t turn up any other problems. The worst-case scenario would be the theft of plan assets, which would be financially damaging to participants and your company, and could also lead to plan disqualification.
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The Employee Benefit Research Institute’s 2016 “Retirement Confidence Survey” provides helpful insights on employee behavior and benchmarking data for plan sponsors striving to help their employees attain retirement readiness. When it comes to retirement preparation, the study indicates that confidence often doesn’t correlate to the underlying facts. This article highlights the challenge for many plan sponsors for closing the perception/reality gap.
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