Industry News

  • Required Minimum Distributions

    Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) are minimum amounts you must withdraw from your IRA or retirement plan account when you reach age 72. Beginning in 2023, the SECURE 2.0 Act changes the age RMDs must begin to age 73 for taxpayers that reach age 72 after December 31, 2022.

  • Grace Period for Annual Participant Disclosures

    Sungard Relius (www.relius.net)

    The Department of Labor has published a direct final rule that provides plan administrators with a two-month grace period for delivering required annual participant level fee and investment desclosures. This modification will alleviate concerns regarding "creeping deadlines" in which plan administrators who furnished the required disclosures any time prior to the expiration of the 12-month deadline would accelerate the deadline for susequent plan years.

  • There is No Such Thing as Free 401(k) Administration

    By Ary Rosenbaum, Esq.

    Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has been around for more than a century and it proclaims itself to be the "Greatest Show on Earth". In 1985, the Greatest Show on Earth presented a living Unicorn. Of course, the problem was that a unicorn is a mythical creature. How Ringling Bros. thought that a goat with a horn sticking through its head could be pawned off as something that doesn't exist is beyond me. In the 401(k) retirement plan industry, one of our "unicorns" is the idea that 401(k) plan sponsors could have their plans administered for free.

  • Fee Disclosures Should Not Lead to Decisions

    www.plansponsor.com

    "The main thing...don't get excited." That quote, used repeatedly by my late Uncle John for crossroads both small and large, is an inside joke among my family members, but during a discussion with Kevin Watt, senior vice president of Security Benefit's defined contribution group, it seemed to me like an appropriate opening for recently received fee disclosures.

  • Fee Disclosure Guidance on Brokerage Accounts is Clarified

    Sungard Relius (www.relius.net)

    Last week, the DOL changed its guidance dealing with participant disclosures on brokerage accounts, removing controversial Q&A 30 of FAB 2012-2 and replacing it with Q&A 30 of FAB 2012-2R. This Technical Update focuses on plans which provide participants the option to direct their investments through brokerage accounts, and do not otherwise provide a set of designated investment alternatives (DIAs) for participant selection.