Anne Becker

2 weeks ago | mondaq.com | Joseph Adams |Amy Gordon |Anne Becker |Grant E. Shillington

Lawsuits targeting retirement plans for allegedly payingexcessive fees to service providers, including recordkeepers, showno signs of slowing down. As we previously posted, some courts required plaintiffsasserting prohibited transaction claims in such cases to make someinitial detailed allegations that the arrangement at issue betweenthe plan and the service provider was improper because it wasunnecessary or involved unreasonable compensation.

4 weeks ago | mondaq.com | Amy Gordon |Anne Becker |Justin A. Linder |Grant E. Shillington

2024 was another high-volume year for pension risk transfer(PRT) transactions. But as defined benefit pension plans havecontinued to shift pension risk to annuity providers, planparticipants have been filing lawsuits claiming the PRTs are riskyand/or the fiduciaries choosing the annuity provider have breachedtheir fiduciary duty. A number of these lawsuits involved PRTtransactions to Athene Annuity and Life Co. (Athene), which is aprivate equity backed insurance company.

Nov 7, 2024 | mondaq.com | David Rogers |Joseph Adams |Anne Becker |Abby Brothers

The IRS recently released Notice 2024-80 to announce cost-of-living adjustments to the indexed dollar limits applicable to retirement plans. The chart below shows how the 2025 limits compare to the 2024 limits. Most importantly, the new IRS guidance addresses the SECURE 2.0 change to the catch-up contribution limit for participants aged 60 to 63; this "super-catch-up" is effective January 1, 2025.

Oct 29, 2024 | mondaq.com | Joseph Adams |Amy Gordon |Anne Becker |Abby Brothers

On October 4, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to resolve a three-way circuit split regarding the pleading standard for alleged prohibited-transaction claims under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA). The case is Cunningham v. Cornell University, Nos. 21-88, 21-96, 21-114 (U.S. Oct. 4, 2024). See here.