Part of the Supreme Court’s reasoning in affirming two lower court rulings in Thole v. U.S. Bank is the fact that the Department of Labor polices pension plan fiduciary violations, but plaintiffs’ attorneys say the resourced-strapped federal agency can’t do the job alone.
Normally the Supreme Court strives to structure its rulings with the narrowest possible scope and implications, but that is not always the case.
The agency says it is postponing deadlines for certain time-sensitive actions required by these plans and others because of the COVID-19 emergency.
The case is expected to help determine whether the millions of Americans whose pensions are held in defined benefit plans have the right to sue the fiduciaries of their plans for mismanaging assets, even when their own retirement benefit has not suffered.
A court found most actions alleged in participants' complaint were not fiduciary functions.
Due dates for filings or actions that would otherwise have been due on or after April 1, and before July 15, have been extended to July 15.
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 plaintiffs allege Hilton is not using an elapsed time method dictated by a prior court decision.
Retirees sued for denial of benefits, claiming Delta was wrong to offset their pension payments by a workers' compensation settlement they received.
Allegations in the lawsuit, which has now cleared Rockwell’s dismissal motion, echo those filed in other lawsuits challenging the actuarial assumptions used by pension plan sponsors to value alternative forms of benefits other than the default.
Former participants in AT&T's pension plan say that because factors have not been updated to be in line with reasonable actuarial assumptions, they do not yield actuarially equivalent payments to participants as required by ERISA.
The agency has issued proposed rules on Benefits Payable in Terminated Single-Employer Plans and Allocation of Assets in Single-Employer Plans, as well as the assumptions PBGC uses to determine de minimis lump sum benefits in PBGC-trusteed terminated single-employer defined benefit (DB) pension plans.
Both the U.S. Solicitor and the Pension Rights Center argue that current funded status of a defined benefit (DB) plan is not a proper measure for whether the participants have a right to sue for breaches of fiduciary duties and prohibited transactions under ERISA.
The IRS still anticipates issuing final regulations on closed DB plan nondiscrimination rules.
The company believes the new tool will reduce wait time for advisers, who will usually contact actuaries to estimate defined benefit (DB) plan contribution requests when clients explore the possibility of setting up a plan for their business.
An aggregate enhanced data set will be used by Mercer's consulting teams to provide more powerful insights to help with client decision making.
The SOA says most plan sponsors that update their mortality assumption from the RP-2006 tables to the new tables will experience only a small change in their pension liabilities, usually within plus or minus 1%.
U.S. equities were the driver of rebounds from the 4th quarter of 2018, according to the Northern Trust Universe and the Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service.
The agency explains that, in limited situations, employers will be able to use the soon-to-be issued coverage forms to request an opinion letter about whether a plan being developed is likely to receive PBGC coverage.