The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released its 2024 cost-of-living adjustments are applicable to employee benefit plans, was released for 2024. A year-to-year comparison of limitations can be found here: 2024 Annual Limitations Chart.Continue Reading IRS Annual Limits for Benefit Plans: 2024 Cost of Living Adjustments
Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country has been under both national emergency and public health emergency orders (the “Emergency Orders”). Pursuant to these orders, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury (the “Departments”) issued guidance in May 2020 that postponed various deadlines that apply to benefit plans and made other COVID-related changes to health plans while the Emergency Orders are in force (the “Emergency Period”). After three years, the end has finally come: on January 30, 2023, President Biden announced his intent to end the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency effective May 11, 2023, and on Monday, April 10, President Biden signed a congressional resolution immediately ending the national emergency. The ending of the national emergency marks the beginning of the end to several temporary changes to employee benefit plans.Continue Reading The End of the National Emergency Spells Big Changes for Employers
With more and more retirement plan services moving online, a recent case arising in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Giannini v. Transamerica Retirement Solutions, LLC (“Giannini”),[1] highlights the importance of cybersecurity and anti-fraud considerations for plan fiduciaries and service providers alike.
In Giannini, the plaintiff was a retirement plan participant who filed suit in a proposed class action against Transamerica Retirement Solutions, a third party administrator/recordkeeper, after the company notified him of a data breach exposing the plaintiff’s personally identifiable information (“PII”). The plaintiff alleged that the breach occurred because unauthorized parties were able to access PII due to a Transamerica system configuration change, which left sensitive information such as social security numbers and retirement fund contribution amounts exposed. The plaintiff also alleged this data breach affected over 11,000 retirement plan beneficiaries and caused spam emails, spam calls, fraudulent credit card and bank account inquiries, and fraudulent purchases made in his name. Continue Reading A Cautionary Tale for Plan Fiduciaries and Service Providers: Cybertheft, Fraud, and Potential Liability
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released its annual cost-of-living adjustments applicable to employee benefit plans for 2023. A year-to-year comparison of limitations can be found here: 2023 Annual Limitations Chart
These contribution limits are generally adjusted for inflation and, consistent with prior years, the IRS has increased the limits based on a cost-of-living index. For 2023, the adjustments to qualified retirement plan limitations include an increase in the contribution limit (section 415 limitation) for defined contribution plans from $61,000 to $66,000, and an increase to the annual compensation limit for purposes of Internal Revenue Code Section 401(a)(17) from $305,000 to $330,000 (from $450,000 to $490,000 for certain governmental plans).Continue Reading IRS Releases 2023 Cost of Living Adjustments for Benefit Plans