Our recent virtual briefing discussed important employee benefits issues facing employers today. A recording of the conversation is available for replay below, as are key takeaways.
Please reach out to any of the presenters or your Nixon Peabody Benefits attorney with any questions.
- Fiduciaries should generally only consider pecuniary factors when choosing investments for plans that are subject to ERISA.
- Plan sponsors should review their missing participant procedures in light of recent IRS guidance on tax reporting and withholding for accounts remitted to state unclaimed property funds.
- Plan sponsors should review their health and welfare plan documents and consider whether any provisions can be added to mitigate against litigation risk and unnecessary expenditures (e.g., anti-assignment, internal statute of limitations, overpayment recovery, etc.).
- Along with a global pandemic, 2020 has brought an onslaught of “cookie cutter” retirement plan lawsuits alleging the use of excessive fees. Fiduciaries should remain diligent in monitoring their plan’s investment fund lineup, reviewing recordkeeping fees, and documenting their processes when making decisions involving the plan.
- Health plan litigation has also been active this year. Plan sponsors should review and update their COBRA documentation to make sure there are no deficiencies, and consider auditing their health plan’s compliance with the mental health parity requirements.
- We can expect a decision regarding the individual mandate provision of the ACA before June 2021. It is believed that the Supreme Court will uphold the remainder ACA, even if they find the individual mandate provision unconstitutional.
- The Supreme Court also heard a case discussing challenging ERISA preemption of state regulation of PBMs.
- We are waiting to hear if the Supreme Court will hear the case against Northwestern University’s 403(b) Plans regarding fiduciary breaches. The Supreme Court has declined to hear a stock-drop case.