Understanding Employee Benefits
Understanding Employee Benefits and key developments in the employee benefits field and items of interest to our clients. MORE
The IRS recently issued a fact sheet containing tips for employers who outsource payroll duties. In the fact sheet, the IRS reminded employers that they remain responsible for paying withholding taxes even if the employer has paid the payroll provider, but the payroll provider has failed to pay the money to the IRS.
Among the …
I have blogged in the past about the reach of obligations to multiemployer plans and how other businesses owned by a participating employer can be held responsible for withdrawal liability based upon the common ownership. If one of the businesses is owned personally by an individual, the liability can be personal. A recent case from …
I blogged recently warning employers to be careful when enrolling employees in plan benefits because the employer could be responsible to pay life insurance or disability benefits if an employee who is improperly enrolled incurs a claim. The increased liability comes from the recent Supreme Court decision, Cigna v. Amara, allowing certain types of …
Over the years there have been a number of cases that have involved employers improperly enrolling employees in group life or disability insurance benefits. If the employee who should not have been enrolled dies or becomes disabled, the insurance carrier will deny coverage on the grounds that the employee should never have been enrolled. These …
HIPAA nondiscrimination provisions prohibit group health plans and health insurance issuers from discriminating against individual participants and beneficiaries in eligibility, benefits, or premiums based on a health factor. Wellness programs offered in conjunction with group health plans must also be nondiscriminatory.
Final regulations issued on June 3, 2013, describe nondiscriminatory wellness programs. The regulations amend…
I have always been interested in the intersection of employment law and benefits law. Among those intersections is the extent to which employment law discrimination rules may apply to benefit plans. A recent Minnesota federal District Court decision addressed that issue in the context of an employee who added an opposite sex domestic partner to …
My colleagues on the employment side of our practice have written an Alert summarizing labor and employment laws enacted in the 2013 Minnesota legislative session. The first new law discussed in the Alert is an amendment to Minnesota statutes expanding the allowable uses of employee sick leave to cover illnesses and injuries of adult children, …
My colleague Jeff Cairns recently blogged about a proposed regulation of the Department of Labor (DOL) that will require employers to include on plan statements estimates of the lifetime annuity amount that a participant’s 401(k) balance could buy. The DOL believes this information will help participants plan for retirement. Also to help participants plan for …
As many of our readers know, on Tuesday, May 14, 2013, Minnesota became the twelfth state to recognize same sex marriages. The effective date of the change is August 1, 2013, which gives employers some time to react to the change and analyze its effect on their employment policies and benefits. We sent an Alert …
Various promoters have suggested to entrepreneurs that they use the assets in their 401(k) plans or IRAs to finance a new business. These programs are sometimes known by the acronym ROBS, or Rollovers as Business Start-ups. The basic structure involves the entrepreneur’s rollover from a prior employer of the amount in his or her qualified …
