Insights

When I talk to 401k sponsors about the costs of being found to have paid more than reasonable fees to their 401k vendors, I don't spend much time on attorney fees. However, they can sometimes dwarf the actual award for damages. In Tussey v ABB, a famous case that all...

A couple weeks ago, Blue Cross sent me the notice of my 2016 premium amount. It was $1,600/month for my wife and me. For many people that is a mortgage payment. And, it will go up a lot again next year. That's for 70/30 sharing and a $5,000 per person deductible....

Milliman just came out with an excellent guide to required year-end compliance issues. Rather than me reciting it, you can access it at www.milliman.com/uploadedFiles/insight/Periodicals/cab/pdfs/15-10_YEretire.pdf Note that there are a number of notices due by either...

Novant Health of Charlotte, NC, which was the object of a class action lawsuit brougt by plan particpants and lawyer Art Schlicter, just agreed to settle for $32 million plus a max of $10.6 million in plaintiff's attorney's fees. The class action lawsuit was mainly...

FEATURE FOCUS – AUTO-ENROLLMENT How it Works When a plan sponsor adds auto-enrollment to a plan, it makes the default option for newly eligible employees to participate rather than not participate. Employees are contacted 30-90 days prior to them being eligible and...

So, M/M CFO or CEO, you run a tight ship on costs, right? You negotiate good contracts with employees and vendors. You're tough on costs. So, why does your 401(k) have a cost structure, in place for years, in which your plan costs automatically increase each year,...

Here's a very brief article from the Benefits Law Advisor that lists some best practices for those at your company in charge of the 401(k) plan. These are cornerstone practices of my approach which I strongly recommend to my clients and to plans that I am reviewing....

With huge importance for those responsible for their company 401(k), the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday that retirement plan administrators have an ongoing obligation to monitor plan investments and remove imprudent ones, that funds must be in the lowest...

For years, providers of 401(k) plans have charged the plans they manage fees based on assets. They love to do that because it causes their fees to grow automatically. As long as participants continue to contribute out of each paycheck, as long as companies put in...

Because a 401(k) plan has participants making their own decisions on how much to save and what to invest in, and because many, if not most, participants don't really know the answer to either question, education is required. A prudent plan sponsor will provide this....