Compliance

Plan fiduciaries are more vulnerable than ever on a lot of legal and regulatory fronts, including the financial statements included with their 5500 filings. In an era when 5500 forms and their attachments quickly enter the public domain online via E-fast 2, available to anyone -- including an enlarged army of DOL inspectors hunting for anomalies, “fiduciaries need to be on the top of their game,” warns Dave Dacey, CPA, a partner with the WithumSmith+Brown and leader of the firm’s Employee Benefit & Pension Plans Group.

Guest blogger John Galvin talks to many employers who express doubt about the likelihood their health and welfare plan could be audited by the Department of Labor. He offers tips and suggestions for ensuring your plans are compliant with ERISA and HIPAA.

Hope is the crutch of an ineffective manager, someone who invites otherwise avoidable litigation.

The U.S. Labor Department suggests that the number of breaks called for in an eight hour shift would "typically" be two or three, but more guidance has been requested on little-known PPACA clause.

ERISA plans, as financial entities, will be required to clear certain over-the-counter swaps (i.e., not executed on an exchange) at a “derivatives clearing organization.”

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act requires that swap transactions go through a clearing process. On February 7, 2013, the DOL issued Advisory Opinion 2013-01A that provides clarification.

I frequently am asked by plan sponsors and plan administrators about how to respond to a request for plan documentation. Under Section 104(b)(4) of ERISA, a plan administrator is obligated to provide certain information when requested by a participant or beneficiary.

UnitedHealth Group Inc., the biggest U.S. medical insurer, is set to face claims that it failed to properly oversee a Las Vegas doctor who gave colonoscopy patients hepatitis C by mishandling the anesthetic Propofol.

Recruiting top talent in this day and age can often mean looking to immigrants with talents in an employer’s field. The immigration process can be a difficult one for an employer to navigate, but staying on top of deadlines can keep you ahead of the game.

All in all, it is fairly clear that the Supreme Court will ultimately have to sort out the issue of birth control coverage in employee health plans under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Proposed changes would have required the tracking of unscheduled intermittent leave, a move opposed by the Society for Human Resource Management.

The Internal Revenue Service releases a long-awaited set of rules for correcting employee retirement plans that fail to meet the requirements of the Tax Code.

Taken to its extreme, the case could be interpreted as effectively foreclosing participant claims based upon how a well-funded defined benefit pension plan is invested.

A 'large employer' is one with the equivalent of 50 full-time employees within a calendar year. Sound simple enough? Making sure which side of the line your company falls on can be trickier than you might think.

Any employer who maintains the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s 300 Logs for workplace injuries and illnesses have only days left to post their annual summary from 2012.

A plan sponsor may use the Voluntary Correction Program to correct a failure to timely adopt a written 403(b) plan; plan sponsors should mail their submissions to the IRS Service Center in Covington, Ky.

Everyone from the health department to the IRS will be looking over employers’ shoulders, making sure they are compliant with health care reform. 2013 needs to be a year of careful preparation.

Employers should be using the 2013 plan year as their basis for collecting information relevant to their compliance obligation, according to guidance from the IRS.

The Supreme Court announced it will review cases involving the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act and the validity of California’s Proposition 8.

Voters in Colorado and Washington pass initiatives to decriminalize recreational marijuana use by adults but laws won’t affect employer drug policies.