McDermott Will & Emery
Subscribe to McDermott Will & Emery's PostsTreasury Department and IRS Release Initial Lifetime Income Guidance; Additional Guidance Expected Shortly
By McDermott Will & Emery on Feb 27, 2012
Posted In Retirement Plans
by Joseph S. Adams, Stephen Pavlick and David Diaz Two years after the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) jointly issued a high-profile Request for Information regarding how defined contribution plans can better provide lifetime income, the IRS and Department of the Treasury have issued some initial guidance. DOL guidance, expected...
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Proposed IRS Regulations on Partial Lump Sum Pensions Require Comparison With Plans’ Benefit Calculation Methods
By McDermott Will & Emery on Feb 22, 2012
Posted In Retirement Plans
by Stephen Pavlick, Daniel Senecoff and Alan Nesburg Under some defined benefit plans, participants receive a portion of the benefit as an annuity and a portion as a lump sum. Sponsors of such plans should review the method used for calculating these benefits, particularly annuity benefits, to determine whether the combined value of both portions...
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New Service Provider and Participant Fee Disclosure Rules: What Employers Need to Know
By McDermott Will & Emery on Feb 17, 2012
Posted In Employee Benefits
Thursday, March 8, 2012 11:00 – 12:00 pm CST To register, please click here. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued final regulations relating to service provider fee disclosures to plan fiduciaries under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which affect the participant fee disclosure regulations finalized by the DOL in October 2010. Under...
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DOL Issues Electronic Guidelines for New 2012 Participant Investment and Fee Disclosures
By McDermott Will & Emery on Feb 15, 2012
Posted In Fiduciary and Investment Issues, Retirement Plans
by Diane Morgenthaler, Susan Schaefer and Lisa Loesel The U.S. Department of Labor recently issued guidelines for the electronic distribution of mandatory investment and fee disclosures for participants in self-directed account plans subject to ERISA. This guidance may help plan administrators implement the new rules for the disclosure of quarterly and annual plan-related information, but...
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California Same-Sex Marriage Ban Found Unconstitutional
By McDermott Will & Emery on Feb 9, 2012
Posted In Benefit Controversies
by Joseph S. Adams, Brett R. Johnson and Todd A. Solomon On February 7, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found California’s Proposition 8, which amended the California Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, to be unconstitutional because it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Supporters of Proposition 8...
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Effect of New Michigan Health Insurance Claims Assessment Act on Group Health Plans
By McDermott Will & Emery on Feb 8, 2012
Posted In Health and Welfare Plans
by Amy M. Gordon and Jamie A. Weyeneth The new Michigan Health Insurance Claims Assessment Act imposes a 1-percent tax on “paid claims” for health-related services of employer-sponsored health and welfare plans. To read the full article, please click here.
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Illinois Reverses Position on Income Tax Treatment of Benefits for Civil Union Partners
By McDermott Will & Emery on Feb 7, 2012
Posted In Health and Welfare Plans
by Elizabeth A. Savard, Todd A. Solomon and Brian J. Tiemann The Illinois Department of Revenue recently issued guidance reversing its position on the state income tax treatment of benefits for non-dependent civil union partners. Federal law excludes amounts that an employer pays toward medical, dental or vision benefits for an employee and the employee’s...
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HHS Proposes to Allow States to Define “Essential Health Benefits”
By McDermott Will & Emery on Jan 19, 2012
Posted In Health and Welfare Plans
by Amy M. Gordon, Todd A. Solomon and Brian J. Tiemann The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a bulletin on December 16, 2011, outlining and requesting comments on its proposed regulatory approach to allow states to define what is an “essential health benefit.” To read the full article, please click here.
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Deadline Approaching for Filing New IRS Form 8955-SSA
By McDermott Will & Emery on Jan 12, 2012
Posted In Retirement Plans
by Natalie M. Nathanson, Stephen Pavlick and Adrienne Walker Porter New Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 8955-SSA (the Annual Registration Statement Identifying Separated Participants with Deferred Vested Benefits) replaces the Schedule SSA of the Form 5500 annual report. Section 6057(a) of the Internal Revenue Code requires plan administrators of retirement plans subject to the vesting...
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ISS Updates Proxy Voting Guidelines for 2012
By McDermott Will & Emery on Jan 6, 2012
Posted In Executive Compensation
by David A. Cifrino, Thomas P. Conaghan, Andrew C. Liazos, Anne G. Plimpton and Heidi Steele ISS has released its annual update to its proxy voting guidelines for the 2012 proxy season. The update reflects changes in ISS’s pay-for-performance evaluation methodology, responses to say-on-pay votes and say-on-pay frequency votes and a number of social and...
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