PBGC Flat-Rate Premiums Not Due Until October 15

Mark Buckberg, CPA, CFE, CFF

If you are gathering your pension fund’s information to submit your PBGC (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation) flat-rate premiums by the end of February, just as you do every year, stop now!

The PBGC has given you some breathing room. In a move that should simplify plan administration going forward, the PBGC published a final rule moving the flat-rate premium due date for large single and multi-employer plans, defined as over 500 participants, to the variable rate premium […]

DOL Releases Guidance for Benefit Plans Regarding Same Sex Marriages

Mark Buckberg, CPA, CFE, CFF

The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has provided guidance inresponse to the Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Windsor that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. Technical Release No. 2013-04 states that, in general, the terms “spouse” and “marriage” include same-sex couples legally married in any state or foreign jurisdiction that recognizes these marriages. This is applicable to all laws and regulations within the EBSA’s jurisdiction, which includes Title I of ERISA, as […]

Erroneous Form 5500 Late-Filing Penalty Notices

Sue Weaver

The IRS has sent erroneous Form 5500 late-filing penalty notices as a result of an internal service programming error.

Businesses that filed their Form 5558, Application for Extension of Time to File Certain Employee Benefit Plan Returns, and then filed their Form 5500 before the IRS posted the Form 5558 received erroneous penalty notices.

The IRS has proposed changes in order to correct this timing error in its processing. In the meantime, the IRS has issued an alert to its […]

ACA Update: Transitional Reinsurance Program Fee

Sue Weaver

One of the many provisions of the Affordable Care Act is the Transitional Reinsurance Program (TRP). The program is an attempt to stabilize health insurance premiums in the individual market place. Many insurers are concerned that the influx of new enrollees will have higher than average claim costs. In order to smooth negative experience and maintain reasonable premium rates, this program provides reinsurance to health plans that cover high cost enrollees. The program is in effect for a […]

DOL Concern Over Alternative Investments in Pension Plans

Larry Beebe, CPA

Utilizing alternative investments in employee benefit plans, particularly pension plans, is a common practice. However, as more and more plans have invested assets in these types of investments, the Department of Labor (DOL), in a recently-released audit report (PDF), is expressing some concerns about the use of alternative investments in pension plans.
What are Alternative Investments?
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants defines alternative investments as assets that are not listed on any exchanges or over-the-counter markets, or […]

Benefit Plan Policies: Records Retention and Destruction

Larry Beebe, CPA

In this series, we are reviewing the written plan policies needed to help your benefit plan stay compliant and operate most effectively. For a full list of the necessary policies and why your plan should implement them, click here.

Record retention policies have their foundation in the Enron scandal and its resulting fallout. When the investigation of Enron was made public, the company’s CPA firm, Arthur Andersen, shredded large amounts of relevant documents and e-mails. While there were […]

DOL Announces Temporary Reset of Disclosure Date

Caroline Kettering, CPA

In response to requests from plan administrators and financial service advisors, the Department of Labor (DOL) has announced a one-time reset of the annual due date for providing the investment alternatives comparative chart portion of the participant-level fee disclosure regulation.  Here’s what this means for your plan:

One-Time Opportunity to Reset the Due Date
The timing reset applies specifically to the investment alternatives comparative chart, which contains details on historical returns and fee information for each of your plan’s […]