Photo of Robert Toth

Robert Toth

Subscribe to Robert Toth's Posts

Bob Toth has practicing employee benefits law since 1983. His practice focuses on the design, administration and distribution of financial products and services for retirement plans.

Follow:Read more about Robert TothRobert's Linkedin Profile

Remembering that ERISA does NOT preempt the application of other federal law (like the SEC, Anti-Money Laundering, and the Patriot Act rules-just to name a few), which we continue to learn to integrate into our practices, we now may find ourselves needing to deal with the Federal Trade Commissions standards as well. The issue arises from something as innocuous as the website privacy policies which are so commonplace on retirement plan vendor websites (you know, those things know one ever reads or pays attention to). Well, it appears to matter to the Federal Tead Commission.
…
Continue Reading Website Privacy Policies and the Federal Trade Commission’s Authority over Retirement Plans

State based auto-IRA programs continue to pick up steam, and may soon become prominent features of the retirement security landscape. Granted, there are a number of legal and logistical issues which need to be resolved before they can be fully implemented, but things are moving quickly.
So it is timely to discuss participant protections under these programs. A successful program must necessarily incorporate ways to protect employee deposits. The holding of employee deposits are not much of a concern, as employee deposits will be held in IRAs protected by highly regulated, commercial custody companies-as in any IRA program. The real challenge will be the protection of employees’ payroll based deposits in getting to the IRA. …
Continue Reading Employee Asset Protection and State Auto-IRA Programs

Two issues need to be addressed with a 403(b) plan’s purchase of the collective trust interests of the sort that are typically sold to 401(k) plans: Code Section 403(b) only permits investments in mutual funds and annuity contracts. The CIT interests purchased by 401(a) plans, however, are typically “unitized” non-mutual fund interests. Even if one could overcome the legal and logistical challenges to making them work for the IRS 403(b) rules, there is a serious securities law problem. …
Continue Reading A 403(b) Collective Trust? A Note of Caution…..

The DOL just published its first serious guidance on supporting lifetime income with the publication of FAB 2015-2, guidance which is very necessary for the success of the Qualified Longevity Annuity Contracts, as well as DC lifetime income income. The FAB is an initial, but substantial, step in addressing one of the most pressing of the ERISA issues related to providing lifetime income from defined contribution plans.
Continue Reading DOL Provides Key ERISA Guidance on QLAC/DC Lifetime Income

In what appears to be one of the first reported appeals court cases involving school district liability under state law related to a wrongfully administered 403(b) plan a Wisconsin court found was that an action alleging a failure to exercise ordinary care in the administration of a 403(b) plan, if proven, could be a fiduciary breach under state law. This breach then may entitle the participants relief in state court. …
Continue Reading Fiduciary Liability for 403(b) Non-ERISA Plans?

The QLAC seems to be in the 403(b) “sweet spot”, considering that 403(b) annuities were originally designed to provide lifetime income in the first place. However, as with all things 403(b), however, there are a few unusual twists when trying to put a QLAC in a 403(b) arrangement. Here are a few of the things to consider…
Continue Reading The 403(b) QLAC

With regard to the DOL’s fiduciary proposed regulations, There is much to like in the new rules; some troubling things; and, perhaps, a mistake or two which will be all flushed out in the coming months. There are a couple of technical points which are worthwhile sharing because they represent what we can expect of the “unexpected” as we work through the changes’ impact. These include the impact on lifetime income , and the application of the PT rules on the purchase of annuities-including QLACs.
Continue Reading DOL’s Proposed Fiduciary Rules May Unexpectedly Open Lifetime Income Door, If…….

In Lifetime Income, ERISA’s statute of limitations may serve to provide the basis for a workable standard when dealing with the long term financial risk posed to fiduciary by insurer insolvency following the purchase of an annuity.
Continue Reading Lifetime Income: Using the Statute Of Limitations to Minimize Insurer Insolvency Risk

Chuck Thulin, a fine ERISA attorney from Seattle, WA, chaired the DOL practitioner panel at the latest (and very successful) annual meeting of the 5 regional TE/GE Councils, in Baltimore.  When I commented that we’d  “been there, done that” when discussing some obscure rule,  he told me of reading of the Russian language version of…