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The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, in Doe v. Independence Blue Cross, declined to dismiss a participant’s lawsuit claiming that a group health plan covered under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) engaged in...
By Seth Gaudreau and Stephen Wilkes SEC Commissioner Crenshaw reminded us last year that, despite the poetic beauty of Shakespeare’s observation that, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, names really do matter in the investment world. At the end of...
By Israel Goldowitz In March 2021, Congress enacted the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which authorized the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) to provide taxpayer-funded special financial assistance (SFA) to multiemployer plans to allow them to continue...
Treasury’s Record $4.3B Crypto Exchange Fine Adds to Pressure on Digital Assets - Kim Shaw Elliott, Chief Investment Officer, November 29, 2023 (PDF)
Crypto Remains Massive Compliance Risk for Retirement Fiduciaries - Kim Shaw Elliott, PLANADVISER, November 27, 2023 (PDF)
SEC Case Highlights Why Fiduciaries Should Be Cautious About Crypto - Kim Shaw Elliott, PLANSPONSOR, November 22, 2023 (PDF)
SEC Charges Against Kraken Identify Specific Tokens as Securities - Kim Shaw Elliott, PLANADVISER, November 22, 2023 (PDF)
By Kim Shaw Elliott The SEC announced November 20 that it has charged Payward Inc. and Payward Ventures, Inc. (together “Kraken”, an online crypto platform) with a litany of securities registration failures and other wrongdoing which took place since 2018. In a...
Seasoned Litigator Joins The Wagner Law Group - The Wagner Law Group Press Release, November 14, 2023
A ‘Sea Change’ May be Coming for Investment Advice about 401(k)-to-IRA Rollovers - Andrew Oringer, CNBC, November 8, 2023 (PDF)
By Jon Schultze, Andrew Oringer and Barry Salkin Employee stock ownership plans (“ESOPs”) are retirement plans that provide employees with the opportunity to own stock of their employer. Congress has long encouraged the use of ESOPs under both the Employee Retirement...
IBM Plans to End 5% Employer Matching in 401(k) Plan - Andrew Oringer, PLANSPONSOR, November 3, 2023 (PDF)
3 Takeaways From DOL's New Fiduciary Proposal - Andrew Oringer, Law360, November 2, 2023 (PDF)
By Michael Schloss, Andrew Oringer, Barry Salkin, John Sohn and Stephen Wilkes Earlier this week, on October 31, 2023, the Department of Labor (the “Department”) rolled out its long anticipated new regulation defining who is a fiduciary who provides investment advice...
By Ari Sonneberg The Internal Revenue Service announced cost-of-living adjustments affecting certain dollar limitations for pension plans and other retirement-related limitations for 2024 in Notice 2023-75. The following chart details 2024 retirement plan dollar...
What to Consider When Adding Retirement Income Options - Ari Sonneberg, PLANSPONSOR, November 1, 2023 (PDF)
Blacklisted 'Woke' Firms Like BlackRock and State Street Still Have a Lock on AUM in Oil States Like Oklahoma - Ari Sonnebrg, RIABiz, November 1, 2023 (PDF)
The SECURE Act of 2019 (the “2019 Act”) and the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (the “2022 Act”) made many significant changes to retirement plans and how they operate. Several provisions became effective immediately while others were deferred and will phase in over...
Vanguard Cleans Up Legal Matters, Settles Two Suits, Loses Third - Ari Sonneberg, RIABiz, October 27, 2023 (PDF)
IRS has released Notice 2023-70, which provides the “applicable dollar amount” for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (“ PCORI” ) fee for plan years ending before October 1, 2024. Background. PCORI was established under the Affordable Care Act to...
