The two items that may require an amendment relate to difficulty of care payments treated as compensation for 415 limits, and the application of cooperative and small employer charity pension plan rules.
The SECURE Act's provisions for pooled employer plans (PEPs) did not apply to 403(b) plans.
Parties agreed that a payment of $225,000 will settle the remaining claim in the case related to the share class of the TIAA-CREF Lifecycle Funds.
Parties in the lawsuit against Cornell University have asked for the trial on the one remaining claim in the suit to be vacated.
As in a lawsuit filed in July, the plaintiffs in the recent case challenge the use of an actively managed TDF suite over an index suite.
The lawsuit challenges fees for recordkeeping, target-date funds and stable value funds, as well as fees paid to service providers to the health care system's 403(b) plan.
The firm was also charged with mutual fund share class violations.
Defendants are accused of failing to leverage the size of the plan to negotiate for lower investment and recordkeeping fees, among other things.
The agreement also calls for the university to issue an RFP for recordkeeping services and engage an independent consultant to review investments, among other things.
The agency says it is postponing deadlines for certain time-sensitive actions required by these plans and others because of the COVID-19 emergency.
A federal judge noted that the pandemic will affect civil jury trials in the Southern District of New York “for a considerable and presently unknowable time to come.”
The agency says proper use of catch-up contributions will be an examination focus for 403(b) plans in fiscal year 2020.
The plaintiffs say there is additional evidence for their claims, “such as incorrect reporting on mandatory Department of Labor disclosures about the amount of administrative fees paid by [the] participants.”
More than a handful of university 403(b) cases have been settled.
The March 31 deadline for 403(b) plans has been extended to June 30; the April 30 deadlines for DB plans have been extended to July 31.
The bill introduced to Congress is designed to ensure public sector and nonprofit retirement plans have the same access to low-cost investments as for-profit retirement plans do.
403(b) plan sponsors need help understanding their fiduciary duties, reviewing plan investment lineups and benchmarking fees.
The university argues that other courts would have required more than an appellate court did in its lawsuit to state a plausible claim.
A magistrate judge found that there are genuine issues of material fact as to whether Columbia acted prudently throughout the class period by not consolidating to a single recordkeeper.