Compliance

A Rhode Island state court has upheld a statute under which insurance companies that want to wind up their operations can buy policies back from policyholders.

What could be simpler than 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.

Simplicity should be a key goal in plan design, plan objectives and participant communications. Regulations make this challenging, but the benefits of simplicity are many.

The only things certain in life are death and taxes," Ben Franklin famously said. If you file a Form 5500 on behalf of your company's pension or health and welfare plans, the filing deadline for calendar-year plans is July 31. There are a number of changes in store for plan years 2010 (and any years prior that have not yet been filed) that might cause you to allow more than the usual preparation time.

Until recently, I directed a corporate benefits department and was responsible for complying with the legislation that affected my organization's benefits program. There were mountains of legislation, and while my staff and I were able to handle it effectively, we definitely struggled to keep abreast of everything we needed to do. Then came the law that broke the camel's back: health care reform.

Over two days of hearings in March, the Department of Labor heard from almost 40 retirement industry players on its proposed rule to update the definition of the term "fiduciary" under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The agency also has received over 200 public comments on the proposal.

Employee benefit plan sponsors, fiduciaries and administrators that are using or interested in expanding the use of e-mail, automated phone systems, websites or other electronic media to communicate with plan participants and beneficiaries should review and share their input with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) in response to its Request for Information regarding electronic disclosure. The deadline is June 6.

Employers who fail to remit timely participant contributions to a 401(k) plan on their Form 5500 are likely to receive a letter from the Employee Benefits Security Administration regarding the potential use of the Department of Labor's Voluntary Fiduciary Correction program. The letter informs employers that the failure to remit participant contributions, or the untimely remittance of participant contributions, violates ERISA. Such failure can result in significant civil penalties for the employer.

As a professional who assists in conducting hundreds of employee benefit plan audits each year, I have seen everything and heard so many lame excuses for the errors that we find. Some infractions range from plans allowing participation to ineligible participants, to not allowing eligible participants to participate timely, or even at all. Although the list of mistakes plan sponsors make is a long one, there are three common errors noted during our audits

In guidance issued on March 18, 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor: • extended the enforcement grace period previously provided for some of the new requirements relating to internal claims and appeals that are imposed on group health plans and health insurers under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), and • relaxes in some cases the prior requirement that plans and insurers must be working in good faith to implement the new requirements in order to take advantage of the grace period.

New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly more than expected last week, according to a government report on Thursday that pointed to firming labor market conditions.

After a lengthy wait, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has issued final regulations and interpretive guidance for the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA), the new disability law which was passed in 2008.

You may have been a benefits professional for a long time, but just like spring cleaning, you should review the governance for your benefit plans on a periodic basis.

Many U.S. employers maintain operations in Puerto Rico. Employees frequently are hired in Puerto Rico, and some employees are transferred from the United States to Puerto Rico.

Wal-Mart got a sympathetic hearing from several Supreme Court justices on Tuesday as the retailer sought to prevent female employees from bringing the largest class-action sex-discrimination lawsuit in history.

Sometimes cases turn on a single word or phrase, whether those pivotal words are found in a statute, regulation, rule, handbook or an e-mail.

The U.S. Small Business Administration has proposed to adjust the size definition of small businesses in professional, scientific, and technical sectors, and other service sectors, to expand eligibility for small business programs.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc will urge the Supreme Court next week to reject the largest class-action sex-discrimination lawsuit in history, brought by female employees who seek billion of dollars.

North Carolinians are just sick about health insurance, doctors, medical billing and collection practices, health products and services — more so than questionable loans and lending practices, Do Not Call list violations and telemarketing schemes.

A U.S. judge dealt a setback to a lesbian federal employee's bid to obtain health insurance for her same-sex spouse, according to a court ruling.