The current volatility in the economy due to the coronavirus pandemic has created various issues for retirement plans that need to be addressed in an expedited and efficient manner. The significant...
Firm News
Further Guidance from DOL on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act
The Department of Labor (“DOL”) has issued additional FAQs that provide further guidance for employers and employees on the administration of the Emergency Paid Sick Leave (“EPSL”) Act and the...
Employee Benefits and Bankruptcy: A Timely and Multi-Perspective Look
Tips for Managing Telecommuters
Agencies Issue FAQs on Group Health Plan COVID-19 Coverage Requirements
HHS, DOL and IRS (the "Agencies") have jointly issued FAQ 42 to provide guidance on the implementation of the COVID-19 coverage requirements of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act ("FFCRA")...
IRS Releases Guidance on Requirements for Employers to Claim EPSL and EFMLA Tax Credits Under FFCRA
The IRS has issued guidance for employers with under 500 employees explaining how to claim a tax credit for emergency paid sick leave ("EPSL") and expanded FMLA ("EFMLA") under the Families First...
ERISA Litigation – Lessons for Today from the Great Recession
Many of us older hands lived through the financial collapse of 2008 and, with any luck, learned a lesson or two from the experience that may come in handy now. When 2008 began, my legal practice was...
DOL Issues Guidance on Emergency Paid Sick Leave and Paid FMLA Under Families First Coronavirus Response Act
The DOL has issued a series of FAQs that provide guidance for employers administering the Emergency Paid Sick Leave ("ESPL") and the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Act ("EFMLA") under the...
Retirement Plan Provisions of CARES Act
The third COVID-19 stimulus package has provisions regarding retirement plans, including expanded and penalty-free withdrawal rights, expanded loan rights, extended rights to repay loans and...
The CARES Act: Relief for Small Businesses
On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act (the “Act”) was passed. The bill is expected to provide relief for eligible small business through a loan...
HDHPs May Pay for COVID-19 Testing and Treatment
The IRS has issued Notice 2020-15 permitting High Deductible Health Plans ("HDHPs") to cover testing and treatment for COVID-19, without affecting the status of a person as an "eligible individual"...
Suspending or Reducing Safe Harbor Contributions in Defined Contribution Retirement Plans
In reaction to the current volatility in the economy due to covid-19, we have been receiving a large number of questions from retirement plan sponsors regarding whether it is permissible to suspend...
Agencies Issue Proposed Rules Regarding Health Care Transparency
By Roberta Casper Watson and Barry Salkin Last June, in Executive Order 13877, President Trump directed HHS, Treasury, and Labor (collectively, the “Agencies”) to solicit comments on how providers,...
Suggested Administrative Practices in Light of Intel Decision – Ensuring “Actual Knowledge”
by Stephen Wilkes and Livia Aber As we discussed in a recent Alert, the Supreme Court's decision in Intel Investment Committee v. Sulyma requires a plaintiff's "actual knowledge" of the fiduciary...
Advisors: Time to Finish What was Started….ERISA and Fiduciary Process Have Evolved…Have You?
Over 46 years ago, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) was passed overwhelmingly in the House of Representatives by a 376-4 vote. Congress passed ERISA to empower American workers...
Supreme Court’s Actual Knowledge Decision Underscores Importance of Plan Administrator Best Practices
The Supreme Court settled the debate over what constitutes "actual knowledge" in the context of an ERISA fiduciary breach claim in a unanimous and simple decision that applied dictionary definitions...
No Statute of Limitations Protection Gained from Filing Forms for Employer Shared Responsibility Penalties
The IRS Office of Chief Counsel has released a memorandum stating that employers are not protected by a statute of limitations from the ACA's employer shared responsibility penalties ("ESRP"), even...
CMS Proposes Reporting Penalty Rule
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ("CMS") has proposed methods to calculate and impose civil penalties when a group health plan ("GHP") or a non-group health plan fails to comply with...
DOL Confirms Limited Partnership’s Health Plan is Not an ERISA-Covered Single Employer Plan
The United States Department of Labor ("DOL") has issued guidance (i.e., Advisory Opinion 2020-01A) to confirm that a limited partnership's health-benefit programs were not ERISA-covered group...
Eighth Circuit Delivers Guidance on Whether Rate Setting Amounts to Fiduciary Conduct
Courts have long struggled to set the boundaries at which point ERISA plan service providers exert sufficient control and discretion over plan assets to make them fiduciaries under ERISA 3(21). The...
Agencies Release FAQs on Updated 2021 Summary of Benefits and Coverage Template
HHS, DOL and IRS (collectively, the "Agencies") have released FAQs discussing the recently updated version of the Summary of Benefits and Coverage ("SBC") template and related materials (i.e.,...
Cafeteria Plan Need Not Provide Mid-Year Election Changes
The IRS has reiterated, in IRS Information Letter 2019-0028, that while a Section 125 cafeteria plan may allow participants to make a mid-year pre-tax contribution election change because of the...
De Novo Standard Does Not Save Participant’s Claim
Although the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Ariana v. Humana Health Plan of Texas, held that the "de novo" standard of review applies to a denial of benefits, this was not sufficient to save a...
Evidence of Employer’s Mailing Procedures Does Not Prove COBRA Compliance
The United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, in Randolph v. Baton Rouge Parish Sch. Bd., has ruled that an employer's declaration about its general business practices was...
Employees Need Not Expressly Request FMLA Leave
The United States District Court for the District of Maine, in Waterman v. Paul G. White Interior Solutions, has ruled that a terminated employee may continue his Family and Medical Leave Act...
Congress Considers Multiemployer Pension Reforms While Benefit Suspensions Loom
The U.S. Treasury Department has received an application by the American Federation of Musicians and Employers' Pension Fund (the "Plan") to suspend benefits under the Multiemployer Pension Reform...
Retiree Medical Benefits Vest for Life and Survived CBA Termination
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in Stone v. Signode Industrial Group, LLC, has upheld a district court's decision that an employer was obligated to continue providing lifetime health care...
New Laws Impact ACA and Employer-Sponsored Health Plans
President Trump has signed into law a spending package which includes the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, (the "Act"), and contains a number of provisions related to employer-sponsored...
Federal Circuit Court Determines ACA’s Individual Mandate is Unconstitutional
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Texas v. United States, has upheld a district court ruling that the individual mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act ("ACA") is unconstitutional....
SECURE Act Finally to Become Law
Congress is subject to one of the same vices as many Americans, namely, putting off important activities until the last moment. Earlier this year, the House of Representatives by a 417-3 vote,...
IRS Issues Qs&As on the ACA’s Individual Shared Responsibility Provisions
The IRS has issued a set of Qs&As explaining the Individual Shared Responsibility provisions of the ACA after the elimination of the individual shared responsibility penalty. Background....
ERISA Case in the District Court for the Southern District of New York Highlights Plan Sponsor QDRO Responsibilities
A sometimes forgotten issue in a divorce, separation, or other domestic relations proceeding is the division of retirement plan benefits between former partners and/or husband and wife. While the...
Increased Penalties for HIPAA Noncompliance
HHS has issued final regulations containing inflation adjustments to the civil penalties for violations of HIPAA's "administrative simplification" rules. Background. The inflation adjustments are...
IRS Extends Deadline for ALEs to Furnish ACA Reporting Forms to Employees
The IRS has issued Notice 2019-63, which provides an automatic deadline extension for Applicable Large Employers' ("ALEs") reporting obligations under the Affordable Care Act's ("ACA"s) Employer...
Private Equity Fund Gains Important Victory
In Sun Capital Partners III v. New England Teamsters and Trucking Industry Pension Fund, the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled on November 22 in favor of private equity funds, thus...
2020 Medicare Part A Deductibles and Part B Premiums
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ("CMS") has announced the Medicare Part A deductibles and Part B premiums for 2020. Medicare Part A covers inpatient hospital and hospice care, while...
IRS Releases 2020 Limits for Welfare Benefit Plans: Health FSA and HSA Limits Increase
The IRS has released the 2020 inflation-adjusted limits for certain employee welfare benefit plans and the dollar amounts used for certain discrimination tests. Health FSAs. The limit for employee...
DOL Says FMLA Leave Runs Concurrently with Paid Leave
The U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL") has issued Opinion Letter FMLA2019-3-A, which confirms that the terms of a leave policy provided under a collective bargaining agreement ("CBA") cannot supersede...
Two Opinions Demonstrate Importance of Prudent Administrative Procedures and Substantive Decisions in Responding to ERISA Benefit Claims
One of the most common and important tasks for ERISA plan fiduciaries is how to appropriately respond to plan participant claims for benefits. When the decision is made to deny benefits to...
Employers with California Employees who sponsor Flexible Spending Accounts May Have New Notice Requirements
A new California law (AB 1554) imposes a new notice mandate on employers with employees in California. The law requires employers, beginning in 2020, to notify their flexible spending account (FSA)...
IRS Announces 2020 Retirement Plan Limitations
The Internal Revenue Service announced cost-of-living adjustments affecting certain dollar limitations for pension plans and other retirement-related limitations for 2020, as detailed in Notice...
Final Regulations Rescind HIPAA Health Plan Identifier Rules
The Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") has rescinded earlier regulations governing the health plan identifiers ("HPIDs") that group health plans were required to obtain and use in...
Court Rules that IRA Custodian was not a Fiduciary but did Violate MA Consumer Protection Law
In UBS Financial Services, Inc. v. Aliberti (SJC-12662), the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that no fiduciary relationship existed between the commercial custodian of an individual...
LTD Claim Denial Subject to Stricter Standard of Review Due to Untimely Decision
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in Fessenden v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., has held that a plan administrator's decision to deny a participant's claim for long-term disability ("LTD")...
DOL Issues Proposed Regulations Regarding Electronic Disclosure of Pension Plan Information
In 2002, the DOL issued a safe harbor for electronic disclosure that is available only to those participants that have electronic media at work, and those individuals who affirmatively opt in to...
Participant May Sue Insurer Before Exhausting Administrative Remedies
The U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona has ruled, in Greiff vs. Life Insurance Company of North America, that a long-term disability plan participant need not exhaust an insurer's...
IRS Issues Guidance to Clarify Health Reimbursement Arrangement Rules
The IRS has issued proposed regulations to clarify the application of the ACA's employer shared responsibility provisions under Section 4980H of the Internal Revenue Code (the "Code") and certain...
Genetic Testing May Include Medical Expenses
The IRS has ruled, in Private Letter Ruling 201933005, that portions of the cost of a genetic testing service may be considered medical expenses and may, therefore, be reimbursed by a health care...
Petition For Rehearing and Supporting Amicus Briefs Filed In Schwab ERISA Arbitration Case
In August of this year, a Ninth Circuit three-judge panel ruled in Dorman v. The Charles Schwab Corporation, DC No. 4:17-cv-00285-CW, 2019 WL 3939644 (9th Cir. August 20, 2019) that a plan...
Agencies Issue Final FAQs on Mental Health Parity Implementation
HHS, DOL and IRS have issued final FAQs on the implementation of the requirements of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act ("MHPAEA"). The MHPAEA requires that the financial requirements...