ERISA News

The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), the IRS, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) jointly released the 2022 Form 5500, Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan, and the 2022 Form 5500-SF, Short Form Annual Return/Report of Small Employee Benefit Plan, and their respective instructions and schedules.

In an accompanying news release, EBSA reminds filers that these are informational copies of the Form 5500 series and cannot be used for filing. The news release and accompanying instructions highlight the following changes for 2022:

• For multiple-employer plans, new plan characteristic codes have been added to identify pooled employer plans, association retirement plans, PEO multiple-employer plans, and other multiple-employer plans.
• Updated instructions to reflect the cost-of-living adjustment increase of the civil filing penalty from $2,259 to $2,400.
• Revised the instructions for Schedule MB relating to multiemployer defined benefit plans and certain money purchase plan actuarial information.
• Revised Schedule R to require plans to report identifying information about any participating employer who either contributed more than five percent of the plan’s total contributions or was one of the top-ten highest contributors.
• Revised Schedule SB for single employer defined benefit plan actuarial information to require an attachment of a projection of expected benefit payments and require filers to indicate the first plan year that the extended amortization rule was applied under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

The news release further explains EBSA is “modernizing” the EFAST2 website and that the existing EFAST2 user ID and password log-in process is being phased out. Beginning January 1, 2023, EFAST2 will begin using the unified Login.gov single sign-on process for U.S. government websites. Existing EFAST2 users will have until September 1, 2023, to transition their log-in.

The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation has issued a final rule updating the table used to determine the expected retirement age for participants in pension plans undergoing distress or involuntary termination with valuation dates falling in 2023. This table is needed to compute the value of early retirement benefits and the total value of benefits under a plan. The new table is effective January 1, 2023.

The IRS has announced the postponement of certain tax-related deadlines for victims of severe winter storm and snowstorm in New York. The tax relief postpones various tax filing deadlines that began on November 18, 2022. Affected individuals and households who reside or have a business in Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Jefferson, Lewis, Niagara, Oneida, Oswego, St. Lawrence, and Wyoming counties, as well as taxpayers with records located in the covered area that are needed to meet covered deadlines, qualify for relief.

In addition to extending certain tax filing and tax payment deadlines, the relief includes completion of many time-sensitive, tax-related acts described in IRS Revenue Procedure 2018-58 and Treasury Regulation 301.7508A-1(c)(1). Affected taxpayers with a covered deadline on or after November 18, 2022, and before March 15, 2023, will have until March 15, 2023, to complete the acts. This includes filing Form 5500 series returns that are required to be filed on or after November 18, 2022, and before March 15, 2023.

“Affected taxpayer” automatically includes any individuals who live, and businesses whose principal place of business is located, in the covered disaster area. Those who reside or have a business located outside the covered disaster area, but have been affected by the disaster, may contact the IRS to request relief.

Earlier this year (and announced), the IRS issued Notice 2022-27, further extending temporary relief from the physical presence requirements for certain elections that are made by participants and beneficiaries in qualified retirement plans and other tax favored arrangements. This included signatures of those making an election ordinarily needing to be witnessed in the physical presence of a plan representative or notary public, including spousal consent and certain forms of distribution from retirement plans.

Barring further guidance from the IRS in the next few weeks, this relief ends after December 31, 2022. Participant elections, including spousal consents, after this time that are required to be witnessed by a plan representative or a notary public under Treasury Regulation § 1.401(a)-21(d)(6) will no longer be available for relief from these requirements.

On December 1, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has overturned a lower court decision to certify a class action complaint against Teachers
Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) asserting that it engaged in prohibited transactions and facilitated fiduciary breaches by servicing collateralized plan loans to participants for approximately 8,000 qualified retirement plans. The plaintiffs argue that TIAA improperly receives certain earnings on the investment of the collateral assets.

The lower court had previously certified participants who received approximately 500,000 loans. The Second Circuit ruled that the lower court had not properly evaluated whether the transactions were too individualized to be combined into a class action case. The case was remanded to the lower court for a ruling on this issue.

Industry observers are closely watching this case as it presents a new approach to retirement plan litigation.

The Department of Labor’s final rule titled Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights, which was previously announced, has been published in the Federal Register. Today’s publication establishes a January 30, 2023, effective date. Certain provisions related to proxy voting, however, will not be applicable until December 1, 2023.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has issued a disaster declaration for severe storms, flooding, landslides, and mudslides in West Virginia, for the periods of July 12, 2022 – July 13, 2022, and August 14, 2022 – August 15, 2022.

Employers with qualified retirement plans may allow participants to take hardship distributions if

• they have incurred expenses and losses because of a FEMA-declared disaster, and
• their principal residence or place of employment at the time of the disaster is located in an area designated by FEMA as eligible for individual disaster assistance.

If the employer permits hardship distributions for expenses and losses related to a federally declared disaster, participants can check fema.gov/locations to determine if they are located in a disaster area designated for individual assistance.

The IRS may also issue relief related to this disaster for certain tax-related deadlines. Additional information can be found at irs.gov/newsroom/tax-relief-in-disaster-situations.

Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and co-sponsor Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) have introduced S. 5125 the Family Attribution Modernization Act. The proposal would modify controlled group rules under IRC 414(b) pertaining to family attribution as follows:

• Community property laws shall be disregarded for purposes of determining ownership
• Stock owned by minor children of the spouse under IRC 1563(e)(6) is not attributed when the exception to spousal attribution also applies under IRC 1563(e)(5). This generally occurs if the spouse – 1) does not directly own stock, 2) is not a director or employee, 3) no more than 50% of company earnings are derived from royalties, rent, dividends, etc., and 4) spousal rights to dispose of stock are not restricted or run in favor of minor children
• Stock owned in different corporations that is attributed to a child under section 1563(e)(6)(A) from each parent, and is not attributed to such parents as spouses under section 1563(e)(5), shall not by itself result in the corporations being a controlled group

To the extent these proposed changes result in a change in controlled group status, the transition rules under IRC 410(b)(6)(C) would apply. The disregarding of community property laws would apply under IRC 414(m) for affiliated service groups as well.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has dismissed an ERISA fiduciary lawsuit against electronics manufacturer, Ricoh USA. The plaintiffs had claimed that the employer breached its fiduciary duty to a 401(k) plan it sponsors when it selected the plan’s recordkeeper. As evidence, the plaintiffs pointed to a dozen recordkeepers offering similar services at lower costs than what the fiduciaries selected for the plan. The court dismissed the lawsuit because it found that the plaintiffs did not provide enough detail in their complaint about the lower-cost competitor services to demonstrate that those services were actually comparable to those the plan employed. The court said in the absence of this detail, it was unable to determine whether the comparison between the plan’s service provider and the competitors is actually an “apples to oranges” comparison rather than an “apples to apples” comparison. The plaintiffs were given an opportunity to amend their complaint to address this issue.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has issued a disaster declaration for Hurricane Ian in South Carolina, beginning September 25, 2022, and ending October 4, 2022.

Employers with qualified retirement plans may allow participants to take hardship distributions if

• they have incurred expenses and losses because of a FEMA-declared disaster, and
• their principal residence or place of employment at the time of the disaster is located in an area designated by FEMA as eligible for individual disaster assistance.

If the employer permits hardship distributions for expenses and losses related to a federally declared disaster, participants can check fema.gov/locations to determine if they are located in a disaster area designated for individual assistance.

The IRS may also issue relief related to this disaster for certain tax-related deadlines. Additional information can be found at irs.gov/newsroom/tax-relief-in-disaster-situations.