Regulation

Employers maintaining qualified retirement plans are generally required to file an annual Form 5500 regardless of the number of participants in the plan, except for one-participant plans with less than $250,000 in assets.

The job of being a retirement plan fiduciary may soon be a more lonely experience. Or maybe it will just seem that way under the Department of Labor's 408(b)(2) regulations. Earlier this year, the agency extended the compliance date for the new disclosure rules under ERISA section 408(b)(2) from July 16, 2011, to Jan. 1, 2012, meaning retirement plan service providers have more time to prepare before they are required to disclose to plan sponsors that they are indeed acting as a plan fiduciary. Further, the extension pushes back the transition rule for providing initial disclosures from 60 days after the effective date to 120 days after the effective date. Thus, for calendar-year plans, initial disclosures don't need to be made until April 30, 2012.

The Department of Labor has slightly delayed the deadlines on significant new affirmative obligations for fiduciaries of retirement plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

A new bill from a pair of Democratic senators would eliminate a tax break on corporate stock options.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has proposed two sets of regulations under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act relating to changes that will take effect in 2014.

Your participants want to sue you! Yep, that's right. Apparently there is a whole cottage industry springing up relating to participants suing for hidden fees.

Data collected by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners suggest that average consumer rebates would have been more than 60% lower if agent and broker commissions were excluded from medical loss ratio calculations in 2010.

The much-anticipated report tackles several potential ways of compensating brokers and navigators in state health exchanges.

Advisers in other states are understandably concerned about Vermont's effort to create a single-payer health care system, but overreacting to Vermont doesn't help. Shaping how reform will look in your state will.

The Department of Labor has asked for public comment on a proposed rule that would significantly affect reporting requirements for agreements with labor relations consultants, including attorneys.