In 2021, Congress enacted the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”), creating a new beneficial ownership reporting requirement. The purpose of the CTA was to make it more difficult for bad actors to...
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Law Alert | Seth F. Gaudreau
The Wagner Law Group’s Washington, D.C. Office: Experience, Savvy, And Leadership
The Wagner Law Group’s Washington, D.C. Office has continued to grow, adding Michael Schloss, EBSA’s former Director of Enforcement and before that a career ERISA litigator with the Office of the...
Retirement Security Rule Stayed
Last week was not a good week for the Department of Labor (“DOL”) in Texas. On July 25, the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, in a civil action filed by the Federation of Americans...
Reg S-P Amended Around Cybersecurity
Seth F. Gaudreau concentrates his practice in ERISA...
Attention Investment Managers: QPAM Matters for Immediate Review
Seth F. Gaudreau concentrates his practice in ERISA...
Merger and Acquisition Considerations for Employee Benefit Plans
By Seth Gaudreau and Stephen Wilkes In the context of mergers and acquisitions, an acquisition target’s qualified retirement plans, health plans, executive compensation arrangements, and benefit...
SEC Matters to Consider in the New Year: 2024 Exam Priorities and Off-Channel Enforcement Actions
Seth F. Gaudreau concentrates his practice in ERISA...
SEC Speaks to Importance of Naming Convention
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...
SEC’s Recent Marketing Rule Risk Alert Identifies Additional Areas of Focus During Compliance Examinations
By Seth Gaudreau and Stephen Wilkes On June 8, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) Division of Examinations (the “Division”) published a risk alert (the “Risk Alert” - found here)...
IRS Publishes Registered Apprenticeship Guidance
By Stephen Wilkes and Seth Gaudreau On November 30, 2022, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and the Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) published Notice 2022-61 (the “Notice”) in the Federal...
DOL “Clarifies” Guidance on the Bonding Requirements to PEPS and Their Pooled Plan Providers
By Stephen Wilkes, Seth Gaudreau and Susan Rees A recent Information Letter from Eric Berger, Chief, Division of Coverage, Reporting and Disclosure, in the Office of Regulations and Interpretations...
Ninth Circuit Requires Lower Court to Consider New Evidence in LTD Suit
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Kay v. Hartford Life and Accident Insurance Company, has reversed a lower court’s decision upholding an insurer’s termination of long-term disability (“LTD”)...
Federal Court Finds Key Part of ACA’s Preventive Service Mandate Unconstitutional
A Texas federal district court, in Braidwood Management, Inc. v. Becerra, has held that the Affordable Care Act’s (“ACA’s”) requirement that most group health plans and health insurers cover certain...
Department of Labor Updates Guidance on Independence of Qualified Plan Accountants
Plan sponsors of large employee benefit pension plans are familiar with the requirement of audited financial statements for annual reporting purposes. That requirement is discussed in the DOL’s...
“Probate Exception” Precludes Federal Jurisdiction over ERISA Lawsuit
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in American Electric Power Service Corporation v. John K. Fitch et al., has affirmed a district court’s dismissal of a group health plan’s ERISA action seeking...
Pay for Performance 2022: From Disclosure to Execution … to Retention
By Mark Poerio Tight labor markets tend to sharpen loyalty issues, as employers compete for an edge by which to retain — and motivate — their key employees. It does not take rocket science to defuse...
ERISA Lawsuit Time-Barred Due to Plan’s Limitations Period
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in Bakos v. Unum Life Insurance Company of America, has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit for wrongful denial of long-term disability (“LTD”) benefits because...
No Surprises in Agencies’ Reproposal of Independent Dispute Resolution Regulations on No Surprise Act Billing Arbitration
By Danae Delano, Roberta Watson and Barry Salkin Last November, we published a law alert regarding the first two rounds of regulatory guidance on the No Surprise Billing portion of the Consolidated...
SEC Provides Further Guidance in its Staff Bulletin: Standards of Conduct for Broker-Dealers and Investment Advisers Conflict of Interest
By Stephen Wilkes and Seth Gaudreau The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) recently published a Staff Bulletin (the “Bulletin”) providing further fiduciary standards guidance for...
SEC Expects to Focus on Cybersecurity in 2022
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has focused on cybersecurity under the Biden administration and it is expected to be one of its top priorities for the coming year. The SEC’s...