Pension Protection Act Blog

The IRS announced today that they are eliminating Schedule P from the Form 5500 series. Announcement 2007-63 states that Schedule P is eliminated starting with the 2005 plan year for Form 5500-EZ filers. For all other Form 5500 filers, Schedule P is eliminated beginning with the 2006 plan year.
Schedule P, the Annual Return […]

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As a pension geek, I spend a lot of time reading reports produced by the federal government, or reading reports about guidance produced by the federal government. These reports tend to fall into two categories. One categories is the stack of papers which I read, highlight, and spend some time contemplating. The […]

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Recognizing when a plan has partially terminated is important and sometimes overlooked. For both participants and plan sponsors, the finding of a partial termination is an important plan event because participants who were partially vested before the partial termination event will become fully vested due to the partial termination.
In Revenue Ruling 2007-43, issued today […]

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The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin dismissed the 401(k) fee lawsuit filed against Deere & Company and Fidelity last week. In an opinion by Judge Shabaz, the Court granted the motion to dismiss filed by Deere & Fidelity.
Participants in Deere & Company’s 401(k) plan alleged that the investment options offered […]

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What happens if you thought a plan was not a Cycle A plan, and so you did not restate it for EGTRRA and did not submit it for a determination letter by January 31, 2007, and then you read Rev. Proc. 2007-44, and realize that the plan is a Cycle A plan, and should have […]

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This week in the Employee Benefits world:
From the IRS:

The IRS published the Summer 2007 Edition of Employee Plans News. Packed full of information, it provides insight into Rev. Proc. 2007-44 and the staggered remedial amendment cycle, the Employee Plans Compliance Unit (EPCU), the new Roth regulations, and 412(i) plan information.
The IRS issued Final Regulations […]

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Later this year, the IRS is expected to release guidance on including health benefits in defined benefit plans. From a public policy standpoint, this is potentially a good thing for participants. Imagine if a defined benefit plan offered pre- and post-retirement health insurance benefits. AARP has said that one of the major […]

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At the Cincinnati Benefits Conference last week, I was surrounded by some of the giants of plan document design, especially pre-approved prototypes and volume submitter documents. At one point, around one table during lunch, sat the writers of prototypes and volume submitter documents used by more than 70% of 401(k) plans, profit sharing plans, […]

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From the Cincinnati Benefits Conference today comes information about the amendment for the Final 415 Regulations. The IRS will not be issuing a model or sample amendment, so plan sponsors should plan on adopting a good faith amendment to incorporate the changes made by these regulations into their plan documents.
The deadline for adopting the […]

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Today, the IRS published Revenue Procedure 2007-44, which is the long-awaited revision to Rev. Proc. 2005-66. (Hat tip to Benefitslink.com)
For defined benefit pension plan geeks, we are celebrating tonight because the deadline for submitting the plans for opinion/advisory letters was just extended from October 31, 2006, to January 31, 2008. Three more […]

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