Regulation

As employers brace for significant changes in pension law, they will need to review their impact on minimum-funding contributions, PBGC premiums and current funding-based benefit restrictions, as well as employee communications and funding and investment strategies.

Altera Corp. and the Internal Revenue Service are battling in U.S. Tax Court over the semiconductor maker’s handling of employee stock-based compensation and a unit in the low-tax Cayman Islands.

A “selected list” of pending and resolved lawsuits involving racial harassment allegations offers a teachable moment about the need for sensitivity training, as well as what’s offensive, harassing and illegal.

The health care trust affiliated with the United Auto Workers named a former Stanford University official and Hewlett-Packard Co executive to manage its $54 billion in assets earmarked for retiree medical benefits.

In April, the Internal Revenue Service issued proposed regulations on collecting fees from health insurance issuers and self-insured group health plan sponsors for establishing the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund, as required under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The fund provides funding for a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. PPACA requires the Institute to conduct research to evaluate and compare health outcomes and the clinical effectiveness, risks, and benefits of medical treatments, services, procedures, drugs and other strategies or items that treat, manage, diagnose or prevent illness or injury.

Now that the high court has upheld all Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provisions pertaining to employers, the focus shifts to numerous compliance obligations and possible economic implications of fully implementing the health care reform law.

While there is much anticipation of the impending Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of PPACA, good plan sponsors already should be preparing for how they will respond to the health care reform decision. Here are some road-maps to prepare for the possible outcomes.

As I was thinking about a topic to share my "vast" knowledge and information with my benefit peers, it occurred to me just how much I don't know. If it's not regulations and politics yanking our chain, it's the financial markets undoing what we thought we knew historically about trends; it's our employee demographics changing; it's the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation changing rates and the Department of Labor issuing guidance; it's the vendor and consultant landscape changing with mergers or core business focus; and it's the evolution in financial products. So here are the many things I am not:

A former human resources employee who worked for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities pleaded guilty to five criminal counts, including sending forms to the Department of Labor about people who were not employed by the firm, even though they were on payroll and provided benefits. He also admitted to filing false U.S. individual income tax returns. The charges carry a maximum possible prison term of 19 years.

A couple months ago, a client's management team asked whether I agreed with their existing practice of automatically excluding from consideration for employment all candidates with criminal records. I advised them that I could not bless such a blanket disqualification, and I counseled them about how to modify their practice going forward. …