Who is an Employee? MAINTAINING A RETIREMENT PLAN FOR YOUR EMPLOYEES IS NO EASY TASK. At various points during the year, employers and HR departments field participant questions, help with enrollments, deliver notices and statements, and participate in the distribution process. However, an additional responsibility, and one of the most important, is the collection of […]
February 2018: Navigating Distributions & Under the New Tax Law
Navigating Distributions The first quarter of the calendar year typically sees an uptick in the number of retirement plan distributions and participant loans. This year may be even busier than most, given the relief announced by the IRS for victims of the recent hurricanes and wildfires. Whatever the reason, participant distributions present a complex set […]
December 2017: End of the Year Checklist
End of the Year Checklist As the year-end approaches, our to-do lists can be lengthy. There are holidays to prepare for, employee performance reviews to complete, and, oh, wait, there is also the year-end data collection package from your TPA! We have once again reached that magical time of the year when you get to […]
September 2017: New Fiduciary Rule and Hardship Distributions
Fiduciary – The New “F” Word There has been much upheaval in the retirement world as of late and it centers around the new fiduciary rule. The New Fiduciary Rule means that many investment professionals that weren’t previously considered fiduciaries will now have to take on that role. So, why is that such a bad […]
June 2017: Retirement Plan Rx
The latest news regarding retirement plans has centered around service provider fees. While fees are a highly important aspect of managing an employer-sponsored retirement plan, they are not the only metric of your overall retirement plan’s health. A low-cost retirement plan does not necessarily parallel a fruitful pension program for employees. Studies show that since […]
April: Benefit Communications in an Electronic World
With communication mediums like email, text, and IM’s becoming the standard in business industries worldwide, plan sponsors are becoming increasingly interested in abandoning paper processes for a more electronic means of communication with plan participants and beneficiaries. Since e-delivery is not an “all or nothing” prospect, this new approach presents itself as an accessible and […]
February: Dealing with Uncashed Distribution Checks and Missing Participants
It is estimated that uncashed checks account for billions of dollars, representing a fortune of uncollected funds belonging to plan participants or beneficiaries that they are not able to use and also represent serious issues for fiduciaries. Uncashed distribution checks occur when retirement plan participants fail to cash or deposit a distribution check from their […]
December: Rules and Taxation of 401(k) Plan Distributions
A 401(k) plan permits employees to defer a portion of their salaries on a pre-tax basis with the objective of accumulating assets for retirement. Additional assets are accumulated if the employer makes contributions to the participant’s account. Click on the button below to read the entire article…
October 2016: Keeping Abreast of Plan Loan Rules
If you have a 401(k) plan, you’ve likely had participants ask about taking loans from their accounts. If you haven’t yet, it is only a matter of time. While the concept of taking a loan is pretty straightforward—you borrow money, you repay it with interest—there are some pretty detailed rules that govern loans in the […]
August 2016: DOL Issues New Fiduciary Rule
On April 8, 2016 the Department of Labor (DOL) issued final guidance that greatly expands the types of retirement investment advice that will be subject to the fiduciary duty rules under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). The so-called “conflict of interest” rule for retirement investments will have a significant effect on those […]