ERISA provides every employee benefit plan shall be established and maintained pursuant to a written instrument. Such plan instrument shall provide for one or more named fiduciaries who jointly or severally have authority to control and manage the operation and administration of the plan. Exactly what constitutes a “written instrument” can be debated. There are […]
ERISA §402 requires that every employee benefit plan “be established and maintained pursuant to a written instrument”. There is no specific dollar for not having ERISA plan documents. However, failure to comply with an ERISA requirement can have serious consequences. In addition to ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) requires written ERISA plan documents including: IRC […]
The IRS has issued Notice 2014-19 and posted Answers to Frequently Asked Questions Regarding the Application of the Windsor Decision and Post-Windsor Published Guidance to Qualified Retirement Plans on its website. ErisaALERTs 2013-04 and 2013-06 discussed government guidance issued as a result of the United States v Windsor (the Supreme Court decision that holds Section 3 […]
compliance, DOMA, IRS, WindsorERISA requires that each plan subject to ERISA provide a summary plan description (SPD) as part of their Plan Documents. The DOL provides the content requirements of the SPD. Over time other language has been added by practitioners and generally you will find the DOL required language as well as “good to have” language in […]
403(b) Plans Part II – what can you expect from your auditor You need an audit – what you can expect This ErisaALERT is the second in a series covering issues facing 403(b) plan sponsors. Our first in the series discussed the rules regarding who is subject to an audit as well as tools available […]
403b, audit, auditor403(b) Plans The Next Step – determining if you are subject to the audit requirement Now that you have successfully adopted your plan document and determined whether or not you have an ERISA plan, it is time to focus on ERISA audits. This ErisaALERT is the first in a series covering issues facing 403(b) plan […]
403b2, auditDecember, 2007 DOL Auditing Medical Plan The Department of Labor (DOL) is starting to audit health plans!!! We are currently working with a client in responding to a DOL audit notice. Relying on that old adage “forewarned is forearmed”, we would like to share with you the data that the DOL is requesting in this […]
DOL, DOL audits, DOL plan audits, H&W plan auditsMarch, 2006 Small Health Plans Must Comply With HIPAA Security Rules by April 20, 2006 WHAT: The HIPAA Security Rule applies to all electronic protected health information (ePHI) created, received, maintained or transmitted by a covered entity. Covered entities are required to implement reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect against reasonably anticipated threats or […]
compliance, HIPAA, small plansThe DOL, IRS and HHS have issued final regulations clarifying the maximum length of an employee orientation period in light of the 90-day waiting period limitation ErisaALERT 2012-13 under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). To guard against potential subterfuges for the passage of time, final regulations provide that one month is the maximum allowed length of […]
90 day waiting period, ACA, orientation periodThe IRS issued guidance regarding tax treatment of certain employee benefits for same gender marriages, making ERISA compliance a little more complicated. HHS also issued guidance relating to Medicare and DOL issued guidance relating to FMLA as it relates to same gender marriages. The Supreme Court decision in U.S. v Windsor that holds Section 3 […]
compliance, DOL, DOMA, FMLA, HHS, IRS(c) 2015 Erisa Diagnostics - We focus on benefits, so you can focus on business