Compliance

If you have former employees receiving subsidies for COBRA coverage, that will end August 31 with no signs of Congress looking to extend the subsidy program further.

A former Arab American employee of PricewaterhouseCoopers has filed suit against the firm, claiming he was terminated after he told an internal newsletter that he thought “there is room for improvement” in PwC’s diversity practices.

If you're a small business, age discrimination is something that you should be sure to avoid. After all, wrongful termination or mistreatment of employees because of their age can result in lawsuits, as illustrated by a recent lawsuit filed by a New York teacher who was fired allegedly because of her age.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) had proposed a rule that would require companies to report to disclose potential withdrawal liability for multiemployer defined benefit pension.

First, there was the Taco Bell meat lawsuit. And now, there's the Taco Bell haircut lawsuit.

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.

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.

On June 17, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced new procedures for health plans with limited benefits to obtain temporary waivers of the restrictions on annual dollar limits that were imposed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Plan sponsors who forget to actually do discrimination testing run into all sorts of problems, including the possibility that their plan can be disqualified. To pass the Section 105(h) nondiscrimination rules an employer must meet two separate tests.

Your communications with your attorney are not privileged. Wow, that is a scary thought, isn't it?

Benefit administrators, 401(k) vendors, recordkeepers and benefits professionals regularly recommend that participants in qualified retirement plans periodically review and update their beneficiary designation forms. Qualified retirement plans provide that if a married participant dies without a beneficiary designated, the death benefit will be paid to the participant's spouse, unless the spouse consents in writing to appointing an alternate payee. For a single participant, benefits are paid to their estate if no beneficiary is designated. What could be simpler that merely indicating to whom or to what entity a participant wishes their assets to be transferred in the event of death? Unfortunately, numerous issues arise in connection with the simple task of designating a beneficiary.

Nebraska lawmakers unanimously approved changes to collective bargaining for public workers on May 25 but the debate was not as divisive as in some other states, and the outcome was a compromise.

Attention to unclaimed property issues affecting life insurance companies – including issues relating to unpaid life insurance and annuity benefits – has significantly escalated in recent weeks, due to regulatory actions, media coverage, and public expressions of interest by the plaintiffs’ bar. This Legal Alert discusses those developments and puts them into perspective.

The Supreme Court explained that the requisite level of harm for a particular case will be dependent upon the applicable equitable theory of relief. If a plaintiff can satisfy one of the standards, it may then be rebutted by the defendant, if the defendant can demonstrate that the inconsistency was a harmless error.

Employers seem to be especially challenged by the duty to accommodate religious beliefs, and the EEOC appears to be particularly interested in pursuing enforcement of the accommodation requirement.