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The Impact Of New York's Marriage Equality Act On Employee Benefits Plans

(Benefits Update, No. 4, November 2011)     This past summer, New York passed its Marriage Equality Act, which generally provides that same-sex couples can legally marry in New York, and that same-sex...

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Will You Be Ready For 2013?

by Patricia Harris (Atlanta) (Benefits Update, No. 4, November 2012) 2013 will mark not just the start of a new calendar year, but also new compliance obligations for employee benefits professionals....

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Timeline Of Health Insurance Reform

(Benefits Update, No. 3, August 2012) As everyone knows, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was upheld in a somewhat surprising Supreme Court decision last month. (For a recap of the...

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Healthcare Reform: What Was and Was Not Delayed?

(Benefits Update, No. 3, August 2013) On July 2, 2013, the U.S. Treasury Department delayed enforcement of the employer “play or pay” mandate penalties and reporting requirements one year to 2015,...

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"Nursing Mother" Break Requirement Spurs Investigations, Lawsuits

(Benefits Update, No. 3, August 2013) A little-known section of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires employers covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to allow a...

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Healthcare Reform Update

(Benefits Update, No. 4, November 2013) Despite glitches and long wait times, the Health Insurance Marketplace created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) came online October 1,...

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The World Post-Windsor: Rethinking Benefit And Leave Policies For Same-Sex...

(Benefits Update, No. 4, November 2013) Following a highly-publicized U.S. Supreme Court decision and subsequent guidance from both the Labor Department (DOL) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS),...

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Is There An Elephant In The Room?

(Benefits Update, No. 1, February 2014) 401(k) Plan documents can read like Russian novels. They are often long and difficult to understand, so it’s no surprise that administrative errors in operating...

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If You're Going To Light Up, Pay Up

(Benefits Update, No. 1, February 2014) Is charging smokers more for healthcare really legal? Employees who smoke cost U.S. companies $6,000 more per year than their tobacco-free counterparts,...

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Who's Checking The Person Who Checked The Boxes?

(Benefits Update, No. 1, February 2014) A Lesson In 401(k) Prototype Documents Most small to mid-size employers sponsoring a 401(k) plan maintain their plan on a pre-approved prototype document. If...

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Are You Too Cozy With Your Independent Contractors?

January 1, 2015 is fast approaching, and with it, the first year the employer mandate applies to employers with 100 or more full-time employees (50 in 2016) – the “Play or Pay” rules. In preparation...

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How The Windsor Decision Applies To Retirement Plans

The Internal Revenue Service recently furnished employers with welcome guidance concerning coverage of same-sex spouses in qualified plans. In a new Notice, the Service discusses how qualified...

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Safe Harbors For Rollover Contributions

Plan administrators of qualified plans are always concerned that amounts they receive as rollovers actually are eligible for rollover treatment, since accepting non-rollover funds will violate the...

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Healthcare Reform In A Nutshell: Top Five Concerns for Employers

Keeping up with changes under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a challenge for all employers. Here are the top five issues to keep on your radar as healthcare reform rolls out. The Employer Mandate...

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Are Your Beneficiary Designations Heir Tight?

An often-neglected area in the world of benefit plan administration is the beneficiary designation form. Many participants complete their beneficiary designations incorrectly because they don’t read...

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IRS Issues Final Regulations On Longevity Annuities

With the goal of providing retirees with more options to manage their retirement income, the IRS issued final regulations on “qualified longevity annuity contracts” (QLACs). A QLAC is a type of...

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Update For Retirement Plans Post-Windsor

Now that some of the dust has settled on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. v. Windsor, employers who haven’t done so already should take immediate steps to review their retirement plan...

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Do You Have A Health Plan Identifier?

Do You Even Know What It Is? With great focus on healthcare reform, you may have missed a current requirement for health plans to apply for and obtain a Health Plan Identifier (HPID). This requirement...

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Survive The Season With Our Open Enrollment Checklist

It’s that time of year again, when fall weather brings with it a host of legal obligations for plan sponsors running open enrollment. Here’s what you need to know to survive the season. Summary Of...

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Retirement Plan Limitations for 2015

The Internal Revenue Service has announced cost of living adjustments affecting dollar limitations for retirement plan contributions and benefits for 2015.  Highlights include the following: 2015...

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Eligibility Rules Need To Be In Writing

Healthcare reform continues to roll on. 2014 saw the implementation of the health insurance exchanges, the Individual Mandate, and a host of new rules relating to employer-provided health coverage....

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Not All Health Savings Plans Are Created Equal

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) have gained in popularity since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, but many employers are unclear about how they differ from more traditional Flexible...

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Multiemployer Pension Reform

Too Little, Too Late? Employers and unions locked into failing multiemployer pension plans received an 11th-hour reprieve in late December when Congress passed legislation revising laws that had...

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The ACA Is (Apparently) Here To Stay: What Employers Need To Know

Now that the Supreme Court has, for the second time, upheld a major portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it might be a good time to review your practices to ensure you are in compliance. The...

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Is Your Health Plan HIPAA Compliant?

Data breaches with respect to medical information are on the rise, given that such information is generally more valuable on the black market than stolen credit card data. The 2015 breach of...

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2016 Retirement Plan Limits Unchanged

The IRS recently announced retirement plan related dollar limits for 2016. The items are unchanged from 2015; some of the key figures are summarized in the chart below:  2016 Retirement Plan Limits...

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ACA Reporting 101

One of the new Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirements imposed on employers is the obligation to report employee group health plan coverage information to the IRS and employees on Forms 1094-C and...

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Benefits Fast Facts

PACE Act: Some Positive News For Employers With 51 To 99 Employees For insurance market reform purposes, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) initially defined “small employers” as those with fewer than 50...

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When It Comes To The ACA, Change Is The Only Constant: Five Recent ACA...

While many of us were busy celebrating the holidays, Congress and the IRS were hard at work creating and promulgating revisions to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Here’s what you need to know about the...

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Limiting Employee Hours To Avoid ACA Could Violate ERISA, Court Rules

In a first-of-its-kind decision, a federal court recently upheld the right of employees to sue their employer for allegedly cutting employee hours to less than 30 hours per week to avoid offering...

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