Policy & ERISA: archive
Every Policy & ERISA story in Retirement, newest first. 72 stories
1 story
IRS replaces EPCRS revenue procedure and launches IRA correction system
Revenue Procedure 2026-34 took effect the day it was announced; the new IRA program will take over 60-day rollover waiver requests during 2027 and 2028.
1 story
Musk pledges one SpaceX share per child as Trump Account rules are debated
Aon's Grace Lattyak told a Treasury and IRS hearing that proposed rules may shortchange children of divorced or separated parents.
2 stories
Milliman and Marsh project $25,500 401(k) deferral limit for 2027
The forecasts also put the age-50 catch-up at $8,500 and the enhanced 60-63 catch-up at $11,750; the IRS has not yet released official limits.
Zero-balance 403(b) staff may still count on Form 5500, Groom attorneys say
The 2023 change generally excludes eligible zero-balance employees from the status count, but other Form 5500 lines may still require them, the attorneys say.
3 stories
Eric Pan to step down as Investment Company Institute president and CEO by mid-2027
The board asked him to stay until a successor is found; he intends to leave by June 30, 2027.
ICI CEO Eric Pan sets June 30, 2027 departure as board seeks successor
He has agreed to stay until a replacement is found, ICI said in an Oct. 19 release.
Eleventh Circuit ends ERISA exhaustion for statutory claims
Groom Law says the unanimous ruling leaves the exhaustion requirement in place for most denial-of-benefits claims.
1 story
Trump signs ESOP valuation bill with good-faith defense for fiduciaries
Fiduciaries who rely in good faith on an independent appraisal under IRS Revenue Ruling 59-60 get a statutory defense; the House passed the Senate text 401-14 in September 2026.
1 story
Treasury opens more than 60 million Trump Accounts; parents still must claim them
Baird's Tim Steffen tells InvestmentNews that parents still must complete an identity-verification claim before adding money or changing how the account is invested.
2 stories
Finhabits estimates 13.6 million Latino adults may be income-eligible for Saver's Match in 2027
About four in ten Latino adults with earnings would qualify, and the report models $615 billion to $1.02 trillion in retirement balances over 30 years under illustrative scenarios.
Eight retirement groups press Congress on SECURE 2.0 corrections
The coalition, which includes the ICI, the IRI and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said a missing distribution trigger blocks terminally ill participants from taking plan distributions solely because of their diagnosis.
1 story
EBSA's Aronowitz outlines process safe harbors in proposed Investment Selection Rule
The proposal, prompted by an August 2025 executive order, gives plan fiduciaries 20 examples of a prudent selection process and six non-exhaustive factors.
1 story
Expanding ESOPs coalition grows past 100 members and hires Michael Sinacore
Michael Sinacore, credited by the coalition with behind-the-scenes work on SECURE 2.0, will lead its push to make partial ESOPs easier to establish and scale.
1 story
Investment Company Institute re-elects Andrew Schlossberg chair; IRI names Jill Hoffman government affairs chief
ICI added eight governors, and Jill Hoffman starts Oct. 5, giving her a three-month overlap before Paul Richman retires.
1 story
Supreme Court weighs what makes a fund benchmark meaningful in Intel ERISA case
Tuesday's argument showed agreement that plaintiffs need a comparator; the dispute is how similar it must be to survive dismissal.
1 story
ERIC and NAGDCA ask IRS to simplify Saver's Match deposit routing
ERIC wants the Treasury's up-to-$1,000 Saver's Match contributions routed through existing plan rollover systems, while NAGDCA urges a design simple enough to administer before 2028 payments.
1 story
Scott and DeSaulnier introduce three House retirement bills on fiduciary advice and ERISA standing
The package would name rollovers in the fiduciary definition, treat commissions and payments from any source as compensation, and let participants sue as assignees on their plan's behalf.
4 stories
IRS proposes letting Treasury create 63.36 million Trump Accounts without parental election
Draft rules would replace the March proposal by letting the Treasury Secretary open accounts automatically, and the regulations do not say which data would identify eligible children.
Treasury moves to auto-open Trump Accounts for children with Social Security numbers
Treasury projects more than 60 million accounts will be added this year under temporary regulations that let the secretary open them on a child's behalf.
IRS Notice 2026-49 proposes standard forms for plan-to-plan rollovers
The proposal would supply four model forms and a five-step process, and 401(k) Specialist columnist Tom Hawkins calls it a constructive step.
California's Proposition 42 would shield 401(k), pension and IRA assets from new personal-property taxes
The measure responds to state tax proposals from 2019, 2022 and 2024, and its backers cite a study estimating that a 1% asset tax could cost retirees $225,000 to $1.2 million over a lifetime.
2 stories
Ron Wyden bill would double the Saver's Match to $2,000 a year
The Savers Match Enhancement Act would lift the federal matching rate to 100% of the first $2,000 contributed and index that ceiling to inflation, with the program's first payments not scheduled until 2027.
SEC proposes to rescind adviser pay-to-play rule for government clients
The 2010 rule barred compensated advisory work for government clients for two years after certain political contributions; the SEC would also drop the related recordkeeping requirements.
1 story
ERIC asks Treasury to make BNY the Trump Account clearinghouse for employers
Employers can't fund accounts they can't verify, so the permanence of the government's clearinghouse decides whether contributions ever reach payroll.
3 stories
CBO's 26 percent cut is the planning number now
Two government estimators sit four points apart on the same 2032 insolvency date, and the decumulation machinery of the DC system has no input for either of them.
Wagner to PBGC: price the sponsor's conduct, not its adviser's error
A 20-page comment letter from two authors of the old penalty guidance asks the agency to make relief a documentation question before the per-diem ladder hardens into a final rule.
The U.S. retirement slide is now a healthcare problem
Natixis's 2026 index shows America spending more per person on healthcare than any of the 44 nations it ranks, and finishing 25th on health.
2 stories
EIG puts the coverage gap at 76.2 million workers
The updated estimate splits into roughly 61 million employees and 15 million self-employed, and EIG's match data show employer money landing well above the typical worker.
Trump Accounts enroll millions, but only 5% of the families they target
Treasury counts 7 million sign-ups; Commonwealth finds 5 percent among the low- and moderate-income households the account was written for.
2 stories
A 60 claiming age leaves the occupation list to three agencies
Three agencies would have a year to name the qualifying jobs, and that list — not the age — decides which clients get the earlier claim.
A manufactured comment file is the rule's real exposure
Three lawmakers want the FBI and Labor's inspector general to test nearly 12,000 supportive submissions, which turns a policy fight into an evidentiary one.
2 stories
The U.S. retirement slide is fiscal, and plan design can't fix it
The U.S. fell to No. 24 in Natixis's 2026 index, and an eight-place drop in its finances category puts the repair with Congress, not with plan menus.
America's retirement rank fell on macro, not on plan design
The eight-place drop inside Finances in Retirement tracks prices and sovereign debt, leaving the private-assets and income-feature fights to answer a question the index never asked.
3 stories
ESOP valuation bill moves the litigation target to appraisers
Passage of S. 2403 gives ESOP fiduciaries a statutory good-faith defense, but the amendment is prospective, so the near-term docket barely moves while valuation firms absorb the new risk.
The 401(k) safe harbor's weak flank is its comment file
Three committee ranking Democrats are asking the FBI and the DOL inspector general to test whether the record supporting the private-markets rule includes thousands of comments nobody actually filed.
AI can't be a fiduciary, but it can leave a paper trail
A 401(k) Specialist column argues ERISA's real failure is moral courage; the fix it implies is narrower than the fix it claims.
3 stories
IRS splits SECURE amendment deadlines; discretionary date still binds
Required amendments now run on a rolling clock tied to the annual Required Amendment List, pushing Roth catch-up adoption to 2029, while optional amendments keep the 2026 date.
ESOP valuation bill reaches the president with a good-faith defense
Fiduciaries get statutory cover for relying on a 59-60 appraisal, and the litigation that follows is likely to chase the appraiser instead of the number.
The House just wrote the ESOP valuation rule the DOL never issued
A 401-14 vote settles the process question for ESOP fiduciaries and pushes the litigation toward appraiser independence.
1 story
Groom's new hire bets ERISA's next fight is the plan menu
A résumé that runs from EBSA enforcement through in-house product counsel at three providers shows where retirement law is being repriced.