Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
A company owner and another manager are not fiduciaries as defined by ERISA and the contributions they failed to make to their employees’ pension plans were not plan assets, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. This decision supports the premise that individual company officials who serve only as conduits for employees’ payments to […]
The standard industry fare level rates that employers will use to calculate the value of trips taken aboard company aircraft during the second half of 2012 were issued Aug. 14 by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The rates have increased about 4 ½ percent from those that were in effect for the first half of […]
Compliance with the contraceptive coverage mandate under health reform is stayed until Aug. 1, 2013 for employers that fit into a slightly expanded enforcement safe harbor described by the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) in an Aug. 15 memo. Reform’s preventive care mandate requires plans and insurers to cover a host of […]
Employers that pay advances, allowances or reimbursements to employees for work-related entertainment expenses — including taxpayers who, in turn, get reimbursed by their clients for such expenses — have until Oct. 30 to comment on a proposed regulation IRS published Aug. 1. The proposed rule clarifies who — among the employer, its client and an […]
Plan sponsors and participants both want to ensure better retirement savings but they often wonder which factor in the process matters most. A study from Putnam Institute suggests sticking with the obvious: The higher the deferral rate during an employee’s working life, the greater the long-term returns. Despite intense focus on fund performance in the […]
In response to health reform, some employers may stop offering health coverage and opt instead to pay a fine, give workers a raise and send them to state-run health insurance exchanges. Compensating for that , the individual mandate may drive about 4 million workers into employer plans, according to research from various sources compiled by […]
Four signs of bad turnover are: Your turnover rate is high compared to industry norms Your turnover rate is high compared those with whom you compete for employees A significant number of employees leave to work for competing employers You are losing many of your top performing employees. In these cases, begin to seek out […]
In spite of significant changes now in progress for the fee disclosures required from retirement fund service providers, a study of plan sponsors’ loyalty to these vendors shows increased satisfaction with them. The survey’s results may indicate that new fee transparency rules alone may not sway many plan sponsors to switch providers. The annual study […]
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have put transit parity — that is, the equalization of mass transit and qualified parking benefits under tax Code Section 132 — back in play, after watching it fail earlier in the session. The legislation would extend a temporary parity provision that expired Dec. 31, 2011, for another two years. Sen. […]
A proposal to raise specific attachment points in a stop-loss model act to a level that proponents of self-funding say would restrict smaller firms’ ability to self-insure health benefits was delayed after an Aug. 11 debate hosted by the National Association of Insurance Commissioner’s ERISA working group. The working group cited the need to study […]