Compliance

A federal judge has rebuffed the latest effort by FleetBoston Financial Corp. to derail a lawsuit charging that its cash balance plan discriminates against older workers.

The US District Court for the Western District of Kentucky ruled that, even though the surviving spouse of a retirement plan participant waived her rights to benefits in an antenuptial agreement, the plan document dictated she receive his assets in the plan.

The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. has announced a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) related to its use of directed brokerage and revenue sharing in its mutual fund and variable annuity business.

The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) has fined Chase Investment Services Corporation of Chicago and MetLife Securities, Inc. of New York $500,000 each for failing to establish systems and procedures to supervise the sales of 529 College Savings Plans.

Mapping funds remains one of the central issues in maintaining 404(c) compliance

Law firm launches lawsuits over 401(k) fees

Pension reforms pose opportunities, threats for advisers

Current trends are leading to an emerging generation of longer-working individuals forced to become personal

If you administer a plan with over 100 participants, the deadline is approaching for providing those participants with one of the required documents, a Summary Annual Report (SAR).

In 44 B.C. a soothsayer advised Julius Caesar to "Beware the Ides of March." It's an admonition that can still apply to 401(k) plan administration today when it comes the to Actual Deferral Percentage Test (ADP).

"Fiduciary" is a word that is generally used in the company of ominous terms like "responsibility" or "liability." But is it a word that describes your role, and if so, is that a good thing?

The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) handed down a $4.3 million award to a former Wachovia Securities broker who was fired in 2003 amid the firestorm of market-timing allegations.

On September 26, US Department of Labor (DoL) officials released a proposed safe harbor rule covering retirement plan sponsors who have default investment options for employees entering plans via auto-enrollment or in situations in which individual account plan assets are invested on behalf of participants or beneficiaries who fail to give investment instructions.

ING Group has agreed to pay $33 million to settle lawsuits which allege it took fees in exchange for promoting particular funds in retirement plans and did not disclose those fees.

The US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio has approved an $11 million settlement for a class of former employees of Broadwing Inc., which sued the company for fiduciary breaches under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) relating to offering company stock as a retirement plan investment.

According to the IRS, one of the common retirement plan administration mistakes relates to plan loan failures and deemed distributions. Advisers can assist their clients in implementing administrative measures to ensure that participant loans from the plan are compliant with the plan document and any separate written loan policy adopted by the plan, which will can also help in monitoring loan payments to be sure they are made in a timely fashion.