Pension Protection Act Blog

Just in time for the New Year, the IRS has released two major pieces of guidance in the form of proposed regulations. The first is Proposed Regulations on Hybrid Plans, providing guidance on changes made to cash balance plans by the Pension Protection Act and recent litigation. The release of this guidance is […]

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When the House of Representatives failed to act on the Pension Protection Technical Corrections Act of 2007 last week, it created a terrific end-of-the-year PPA question.
The question: Are plans required to provide rollovers to nonspouse beneficiaries?
The answer: Yes No Yes
The reason behind changing the answer from “Yes” […]

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Last night, Congress adjoined without acting on H.R. 3361, the House of Representative’s version of the Pension Protection Technical Corrections Act of 2007. The Senate passed S. 1974, the Senate version of the Pension Protection Technical Corrections Act of 2007. The House could still pass their version of the bill after the holiday […]

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Susan Mangiero over at Pension Risk Matters has posted a letter a pretty good letter to Pension Santa. Susan’s focus is fiduciary matters and risk, so her letter focuses on these topics.
I second Susan’s letter, and add this item to my letter to Pension Santa:

knowledge of, and the requisite guidance to create, […]

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Back on September 19th, the IRS issued Announcement 2007-90, announcing that beginning December 18th, 2007, the IRS would temporarily stop accepting applications for determination letters for defined contributions plans filed on Form 5307. Any determination letter application for a defined contribution plan filed on Form 5307 on or after today (December 18th) and before […]

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In a very competitive industry, regulations on reasonable compensation are difficult to argue with. What plan participant has opened their statement on their 401(k) plan and understood at first glance who they were paying fees to, what the fees were paid for, and whether the fees were excessive. In a year of unprecedented […]

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When a participant dies before filing for legal separation or divorce from their spouse, who is entitled to the participant’s benefits under the plan? The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently addressed this situation in Greenebaum Doll v. Sandler, Nos. 06-6494, 06-6496 (6th Cir. Dec. 3, 2007).
In Greenebaum, the participant died three days after […]

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With the applicability dates for the Final 409A Regs looming, the IRS has released Notice 2007-100, which contains corrections to unintentional operational failures. The applicable words are “unintentional” and “operational”. Notice 2007-100 is clear that these corrections are not available for intentional failures, and they are not available for plan document failures.
Notice 2007-100 […]

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David McCann of CFO magazine is reporting that IBM has proposed a new type of 401(k) plan designed to reimburse employees’ tuition expenses for higher education. Employees become eligible to participate after five years of service. Participants are then permitted to defer up to $1,000 each year into an interest bearing account. […]

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The IRS issued a change in their position on the impact of Section 845 of the Pension Protection Act.
Earlier this year, in Notice 2007-7, the IRS issued Q&A 23, which states:
Q-23. Can the accident or health plan receiving the payments of qualified health insurance premiums be a self-insured plan?
A-23. No. The accident or health plan […]

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