Empowering HR leaders with insightful content.
Every so often an employer sponsoring an ERISA employee benefit plan will receive a written request from a participant or beneficiary (or their legal counsel) to provide plan related documents. Sometimes the request asks for specific documents and sometimes the request is broader, asking for all instruments under which the plan is established or operated, …
Continue reading “Pay Attention to Requests for ERISA Plan Documents or Risk the Con$equence$”
It is well known by employers that nonqualified deferred compensation (“NQDC”) plans that are established to provide unfunded deferred compensation benefits to a select group of management or highly compensated employees (referred to as “top hat plans,” as in the top hat, for example, worn by the “Monopoly Man”) are not subject to the typical …
The summary plan description (“SPD”) and disclosure regulations provided by the Department of Labor (“DOL”) are spread across six regulatory sections. They are voluminous. One section, however, provides an alternative method of compliance for providing retirement plan SPDs and summaries of material modification (“SMMs”) to terminated participants and beneficiaries receiving benefits if certain requirements are …
One common response we hear from employers when asked to provide a copy of their health or other welfare plan summary plan description (“SPD”), is whether providing a bundle of insurance certificates and/or summaries of benefits and coverage (“SBCs”) is good enough. While these documents may provide critical information and are certainly important, they are …
Most employers are familiar with the requirement to prepare and distribute a summary plan description (“SPD”). Many employers, however, assume that Department of Labor (“DOL”) disclosure requirements are consistent with the practices and needs of the 21st century. Unfortunately, this is generally not the case. Those disclosure regulations have not been updated in more than …
Most employers that sponsor retirement, health, or other welfare plans are familiar with the requirement to provide a summary plan description (“SPD”) to their employees. With that being said, we frequently run into a number of common misconceptions or gaps in understanding with respect to various SPD requirements. The All Things HR Blog is beginning …
Conflicts between a benefit plan Summary Plan Description and a plan document are an ever-present concern for plan sponsors. An aggrieved participant who relies on SPD language will often pursue a claim for benefits even though he/she is not entitled to the benefit under the plain terms of the plan document. This problem is illustrated …