A spate of recent legislation and IRS guidance promises to make 2021 an active year for any employer seeking to provide its employees with a competitive array of employee benefits. My “top 5” list of employee benefits that an employer should introduce or enhance in 2021, to improve retention and/or recruitment, is set forth below:
Employee Benefits
What Took So Long? Democrats Quickly Introduce Pension Relief Bill
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) introduced the Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act of 2021 (EPPRA) on January 21, 2021. EPPRA represents the latest legislative attempt to address the well-documented multiemployer pension crisis.
EPPRA is significant in that it is the first legislation introduced by Chairman Neal under the Biden administration, signaling…
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021: Top Practical Considerations on FSA, Election Change Relief
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Act) provides certain COVID-19-related relief, including temporary additional flexibility regarding flexible spending accounts (FSAs). Employers have several practical considerations when deciding whether to adopt one or more of the changes in their plans.
Under the FSA changes, employees need not lose the benefit of the dollars they set aside…
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021: Employer-Sponsored Health and Welfare Plan Components
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, generally provides the annual funding for the federal government and, in almost 5,600 pages, contains several important rules giving further COVID-19 relief, including the expansion of eligibility for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Employee Retention Tax Credit.
The Act also relaxes several health, welfare, and retirement plan rules…
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021: Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 generally provides the annual funding for the federal government and also contains several important rules giving further COVID-19 relief. The comprehensive relief package funds certain hard-hit industries, expands eligibility for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and extends and expands the Employee Retention Tax Credit.
The Act also relaxes several normally…
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021: PPP and Tax Provisions
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Act) generally provides the annual funding for the federal government and contains several important rules giving further COVID-19 relief. These include, among other things, revisions to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), expansion of the employee retention tax credit, and changes to other employer-related tax provisions.
The Act was passed by…
Plan Defends Valuation of Accounts in Midst of COVID-Related Market Volatility
A 401(k) plan and its administrators are defending the administrator’s decision to require a special valuation of former employees’ account values, given extraordinary market changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the terms of the plan at issue, when a former employee seeks a distribution of his or her plan account, the account is typically…
Class Action Trends Report Summer 2020
Employers continue to grapple with an ongoing, unprecedented public health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its after-effects, which have profoundly disrupted the nation’s economy and U.S. workplaces. In this issue, attorneys in the Class Actions & Complex Litigation Practice Group discuss the most pressing workplace class action litigation risks arising from the COVID-19…
Don’t Miss Out: Deadlines are Upon Us
Deadlines are a large part of employee benefit plan administration. The past 12 – 18 months have contributed to potential confusion about standard deadlines and added new deadlines plan administrators will not want to overlook. During this period, the IRS created a one-time window deadline, published extensions for some plans’ deadlines, and other deadlines were…
Mid-Year Safe Harbor Design Changes in a COVID-19 World
As COVID-19 continues its upheaval of nearly all aspects of life, retirement plan administration included (see some of our prior discussions here, here, here and here), the Internal Revenue Service recently issued guidance providing additional relief for the sponsors of certain plans. IRS Notice 2020-52 clarifies requirements for mid-year changes to a…