In September, the Ways-and-Means Committee of the House approved proposals to substantially improve the equity of retirement tax incentives for American workers. The new requirement that employers automatically enroll employees in a simple defined contribution plan, and the new refundable...

In New York, surviving spouses are protected by the right of election. But there is an unjust and avoidable flaw in those protections for the surviving spouses of New York public sector retirees: they may be left with no survivor benefits whatsoever, because the default benefit is an annuity...

Part I of this Article proposes that ERISA severely limits the ability of individuals to release their claims to ERISA plan benefit entitlements. lt;brgt;lt;brgt;The ERISA prohibition of any agreement purporting to relieve fiduciaries of their duties voids any attempt to release claims to any...

In Kennedy v. DuPont Savings and Investment Plan (the quot;DuPont Planquot;), 2009 U.S. LEXIS 869 (January 26, 2009) the Supreme Court appeared to proclaim a quot;bright-line rulequot; that plan documents determine ERISA plan distributions. However, the Court blurred the bright-line rules...

In Metropolitan Life v. Drainville, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63613 (DC R.I. July 23, 2009), a federal district court in Rhode Island recently explained the requirements that a domestic relations order ("DRO") must satisfy to be a qualified domestic relation order (“QDRO”). The court held an...

Individuals often fund charitable gifts with their savings or retirement benefits. Such benefits, other than those from a Roth individual retirement account or annuity, are generally included in the individual's gross income when received. However, individuals may not be able to deduct for...

IRS Notice 2020-50 clarified many issues with the respect to how the CARES Act allows participants and beneficiaries to access their own savings and retirement plan benefits to address their cash-flow problems without adversely affecting their benefits. However, the Notice also highlights the...

Plan administrators may permit participants and beneficiaries to access their own plan benefits to address their cash-flow problems without adverse tax consequences with more favorable plan loan policies. These policies are not limited to the CARES Act provisions permitting “qualified...