INFORMATION OF USE TO BENEFIT PLAN SPONSORS AND BENEFIT ADVISERS

Five Fast Facts About Reproductive Health Benefits

Employers are increasingly looking to offer employees assistance in starting and adding to their families, which in a growing number of cases involves dealing with infertility treatments and other reproductive health issues.   Below are five fast facts about this trending employment benefit. Reproductive health benefits are increasingly in demand.  According to a survey by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, summarized here, 24% of employers surveyed covered the cost of in vitro fertilization benefits in 2020, up from 13% in 2016.  Similar or greater increases in coverage were seen across other categories,…

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In A Competitive Job Market, Helping With Student Loan Payments May Give Your Business the Edge

Through 2025, businesses have the opportunity to help employees pay off up to $5,250 in student loans each year ($21,000 total), through adoption of a simple written reimbursement program.  If structured properly, the assistance is deductible by the employer and excluded from employees’ taxable income. This is thanks to one of the lesser known provisions of the CARES Act of 2020, which expended the use of the existing Internal Revenue Code Section 127 for tuition reimbursement programs, to permit repayments of principal or interest on an eligible employee’s “qualified education loan,” as defined…

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Five Good Reasons to Correct Retirement Plan Errors

If your business sponsors a Section 401(k) or other retirement plan, it is governed by a lengthy plan document, often a separate trust agreement or custodial account agreement, and multiple other documents (salary deferral agreements, loan policy statement, investment policy statement, etc.)  Not surprisingly, most plan sponsors get something wrong somewhere along the way, whether with respect to the plan document, or operation of the plan.  Below are five reasons why taking prompt action to correct plan errors is in the best interests of your business, and your employees.    To preserve the…

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“I am a benefits (ERISA) attorney. I help businesses prevent, and fix, problems with their employee benefit plans in order to preserve the tax-qualified status of those plans, and ultimately the saleability of their businesses.”

-Christine P. Roberts

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Christine P. Roberts
Mullen & Henzell L.L.P.
phone: (805) 966-1501
email: croberts@mullenlaw.com

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Recent Posts

Five Fast Facts About Reproductive Health Benefits

Employers are increasingly looking to offer employees assistance in starting and adding to their families, which in a growing number of cases involves dealing with infertility treatments and other reproductive health issues.   Below are five fast facts about this trending employment benefit. Reproductive health benefits are increasingly in demand.  According to a survey by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, summarized here, 24% of employers surveyed covered the cost of in vitro fertilization benefits in 2020, up from 13% in 2016.  Similar or greater increases in coverage were seen across other categories,…

Continue reading → Five Fast Facts About Reproductive Health Benefits

In A Competitive Job Market, Helping With Student Loan Payments May Give Your Business the Edge

Through 2025, businesses have the opportunity to help employees pay off up to $5,250 in student loans each year ($21,000 total), through adoption of a simple written reimbursement program.  If structured properly, the assistance is deductible by the employer and excluded from employees’ taxable income. This is thanks to one of the lesser known provisions of the CARES Act of 2020, which expended the use of the existing Internal Revenue Code Section 127 for tuition reimbursement programs, to permit repayments of principal or interest on an eligible employee’s “qualified education loan,” as defined…

Continue reading → In A Competitive Job Market, Helping With Student Loan Payments May Give Your Business the Edge

Five Good Reasons to Correct Retirement Plan Errors

If your business sponsors a Section 401(k) or other retirement plan, it is governed by a lengthy plan document, often a separate trust agreement or custodial account agreement, and multiple other documents (salary deferral agreements, loan policy statement, investment policy statement, etc.)  Not surprisingly, most plan sponsors get something wrong somewhere along the way, whether with respect to the plan document, or operation of the plan.  Below are five reasons why taking prompt action to correct plan errors is in the best interests of your business, and your employees.    To preserve the…

Continue reading → Five Good Reasons to Correct Retirement Plan Errors

When is a 401(k) Not a Retirement Plan?                 

Short answer – a 401(k) plan is not a “retirement plan” for California creditor protection purposes when it was expressly set up to protect IRA rollover assets from creditors. This was the holding in a 2019 California Court of Appeal decision that is still valid law and that is worth revisiting: O’Brien v. AMBS Diagnostics, LLC, 38 Cal. App. 5th 553, 562 (2019), rev. den. 2019 Cal. LEXIS 8003 (October 23, 2019) Mr. O’Brien got into a legal dispute with his former business partners in AMBS Diagnostics, LLC (AMBS) and lost at trial,…

Continue reading → When is a 401(k) Not a Retirement Plan?                 

IRS Announces 2022 Retirement Plan Limits

On November 4, 2021, the IRS announced 2022 cost-of-living adjustments for annual contribution and other dollar limits affecting 401(k) and other retirement plans.  The maximum annual limit on salary deferral contributions to 401(k), 403(b), and 457(b) plans increased $1,000 to $20,500, but the catch-up contribution limit for employees aged 50 and older stayed the same at $6,500.  That raises the total deferral limit for a participant aged 50 or older to $27,000.  The Section 415(c) dollar limit for annual additions to a retirement account was increased to $61,000 from $58,000, and the $6,500…

Continue reading → IRS Announces 2022 Retirement Plan Limits

Scary Surprise for Some New 401(k) Sponsors: Plan Audit Costs

Imagine you are a California business owner, with three fast-casual restaurant operations throughout the state. You employ over 100 employees, such that by September 30, 2020, you were either required to have a retirement plan in place, or to begin to participate in the CalSavers program by forwarding employee contributions to Roth IRAs managed by a state-appointed custodian. Your decisions about whether to adopt your own retirement plan were made in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when business operations, cash flow, and staffing needs were chaotic and fast-changing. On balance, however,…

Continue reading → Scary Surprise for Some New 401(k) Sponsors: Plan Audit Costs