The Final Ruling The DOL issued a final rule, effective March 11, 2024, that will force companies to treat some workers as employees rather than less expensive independent contractors. The final rule revised the Department’s guidance on how to analyze who is an employee or independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). As to employee health and welfare benefit programs having an individual who has been hired by an employer by an independent contractor not only are they entitled to back pay at a higher rate, but also, are entitled to employee benefits of the employer and ..read more

Evolution of ERISA: Shaping Retirement and Welfare Benefits in the U.S. For Fifty Years It’s interesting to wonder how ERISA will continue to adapt and expand in the coming decades. Keeping up with ERISA’s continuous reporting and disclosure requirements can be a challenge for employers. President Ronald Regan said it best: “ERISA stood for Every Ridiculous Idea Since Adam.” While humorous, the remark highlights the complexity and sometimes cumbersome nature of regulatory frameworks. Over the past 15 years, ERISAPros has acquired clients in all 50 states, primarily working through seven o ..read more

Legislative Changes 2024 Thank you for partnering with us to create your Wrap Plan Document and Summary Plan Description (SPD). As we embark into 2024, it is important to keep your document up to date to remain compliant with changes in the law and any substantive changes made to your corporate structure or benefit plans. The Plan Document and Summary Plan Description (SPD) have been modified to update, expand and clarify the language to keep compliant. In addition to these document updates, we have made formatting changes in our SPD to facilitate distribution via various web applications. W ..read more

What potential benefits could arise from allowing CITs in 403(b) plans? How could it provide plan sponsors with more flexibility in managing investments? The Secure 2.0 Act and the CITs Dilemma: A proposed bill is aiming to fix a loophole in the Secure 2.0 Act that has prevented some 403(b) retirement plans from including collective investment trusts (CITs) as an investment option. The Secure 2.0 Act, which was passed in 2019, introduced several reforms aimed at expanding retirement savings opportunities, but some 403(b) plan sponsors have found it difficult to comply with the law’s req ..read more

Getting Ready for the Conclusion of COVID-19 Emergency Declarations President Biden made an announcement on January 30 that he plans to terminate the COVID-19 National Emergency (“NE”) and Public Health Emergency (“PHE”) on May 11, 2023. These emergency declarations have provided different types of assistance to employees covered by employee welfare benefit plans (health, dental, life, etc.), and they have been extended multiple times since their establishment almost three years ago, which included; • HIPAA/CHIPRA Special Enrollment • COBRA notifications • COBRA elections • COBRA premi ..read more

Legislative Changes 2023 Thank you for partnering with us to create your Wrap Plan Document and Summary Plan Description (SPD). As we embark into 2023, it is important to keep your document up to date to remain compliant with changes in the law and any substantive changes made to your corporate structure or benefit plans. The Plan Document and Summary Plan Description (SPD) have been modified to update, expand and clarify the language to keep compliant. In addition to these document updates, we have made formatting changes in our SPD to facilitate distribution via various web applications. W ..read more

Employers Act as Fiduciaries When Managing Premium Payments for Benefit Plans   The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Chelf v. Prudential Insurance Company of America, reversed a district court’s dismissal of a claim for breach of fiduciary duty based on ERISA’s “ministerial function” exception. This holding concludes that the employer (Wal-Mart) indisputably exercised control over the Plan’s assets as it handled the premium payments in question, thus acting as a fiduciary.  The significance of fiduciary status is addressed below, as well as possible protection against this issue ..read more

The Effect of DOL’s New Cybersecurity Guidance on Retirement and Health/Welfare Plans The Department of Labor (or DOL) released new guidance regarding cybersecurity in April 2021. This covered three important factors: hiring service providers, providing online security tips, and new cybersecurity best practices. These were separated into three documents. They included checklists for plan sponsors who want to be certain that the contracts they set with service providers are both effective and compliant with regulations, as well as guidance for individuals who are looking to improve their safet ..read more

With the current widescale rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, you may be finding that some of your employees don’t want to get vaccinated. This is posing a big problem for many organizations, as it may increase the risk of infection in your workforce and lead to lengthy periods of sick leave and social distancing. That’s why many employers are asking the question if they can offer vaccine incentives such as gifts and paid leave for their employees to take up the vaccine. You can indeed offer incentives to your employees. If you want to offer the vaccine yourself or through a contracted third p ..read more

On June 14, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued an information letter stating that ERISA claims procedures require participants to be given any telephone conversation audio recordings which are deemed relevant to their claim for benefits. This statement followed the denial of a request from a participant to be given an audio recording copy of a phone conversation held with her plan’s insurer that related to an adverse determination for benefits. The insurer and plan denied the recording request, stating that recordings are made solely for quality assurance and are not created, reli ..read more