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Certificate In Employee Benefits Law Seminar Agenda

certificate-in-employee-benefits-law-seminar
Seminar: ID# 1003530

This course is available in both in-person and video conference formats.

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Agenda

Block I: Retirement Plans (Monday and Tuesday)

Overview of the Statutes and Regulatory Agencies Governing Retirement Plans

  • The Alphabet of Laws (ERISA, ADA, COBRA, FMLA, GATT, USERRA, HIPAA and EGTRRA) and agencies (IRS, DOL, EBSA, PBGC, EEOC, SEC and HCFA)
  • ERISA Title I and Title II and the division of authority between the IRS, the Department of Labor and the PBGC
  • Overview of plan types and qualification requirements

Fiduciary Rules and Investing Plan Assets

  • Overview of prohibited transactions, exemptions, penalties and corrections
  • Participant investment direction-Is 404(c) worth all the trouble?
  • Participant investment direction in an up and down market
  • When investments go bad, who is liable?
  • Plan fiduciaries, co-fiduciary liability and the liability of service providers
  • Paying expenses from plan assets.
  • Why is the Department of Labor so interested in proxy voting?
  • The lessons being learned from Enron
  • Investment of education versus advice

Nondiscrimination Testing for Retirement Plans

  • Overview of nondiscrimination testing of participation, benefits, and contributions
  • Controlled groups rules
  • Highly compensated employee definition
  • Coverage rules (Code Section 410(b)), including QSLOBs
  • Nondiscriminatory Contributions (Code Section 401(a)(4))
  • Safeharbors and general rules for contributions
  • Testing benefits, rights, and features
  • Cross testing and age weighted profit sharing plans
  • 401(k) and 401(m) testing and safe harbor plans
  • Dealing with failed 401(k) and 401(m) testing

Plan Administration

  • Day-to-Day challenges of plan administration
  • Participant loans
  • QDROs
  • Salary deferrals and catch-up contributions
  • Paperless administration
  • Sarbanes-Oxley and blackout periods
  • ERISA Section 204(h) notices
  • Suspension of benefits provisions

Plan Distributions

  • When can participants take money out of the plan?
  • Withholding and rollovers
  • Consent rules
  • Joint and survivor rules
  • Hardship distributions
  • Code Section 411(d)(6) Anti-cutback rules and elimination of distribution methods
  • Minimum required distributions at age 70½
  • Retroactive annuity starting dates

Plan Audits and IRS and DOL Voluntary Compliance Programs

  • Plan Qualification: What is it?
  • What happens if a plan is disqualified?
  • IRS audit targets
  • Correcting errors under IRS compliance programs
  • Correcting errors discovered by IRS in an audit
  • Late forms filing and how to resolve
  • Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program
  • Compliance audits/compliance controls

Early Retirement Incentive Programs

  • Designing the program to achieve goals
  • Designing the program to comply with ADEA waiver rules
  • Designing to comply with 401(a)(4) rules for retirement early windows
  • What the courts are telling us about early retirement windows and ADEA waivers

Government and Nonprofit Employers - Qualified and Nonqualified Plans

  • Who is the employer? How controlled group rules apply to government and nonprofit employees
  • Qualification standards for government plans
  • Code Section 403(b) plans-contribution limits and IRS audit and voluntary correction programs
  • Eligible and Ineligible Code Section 457 plans

Block II: Special Employee Benefits Issue (Wednesday)

ERISA Compliance

  • Learn which plans ERISA covers
  • How to deal with state law requirements
  • Plan documentation and reporting obligations to participants and the government
  • Administering benefit claims
  • Making your administrative decisions bullet-proof
  • Arbitration of benefit claims
  • Understanding and satisfying fiduciary obligations
  • Identifying and investing plan assets
  • Protecting your plan's right to reimbursement
  • Avoiding the anti-cutback rule

Executive Compensation

  • Qualified versus non-qualified plans
  • Top Hat Plans - how to avoid the trap set by ERISA and the Code
  • Code Section 409A - the new deferred compensation rules
  • Stock options and other equity-based awards
  • Change-in-control and severance payments

Benefit Issues Arising in Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions

  • Understand the benefits issues and alternatives in M&A transactions
  • Partial plan terminations and vesting
  • How to terminate a plan
  • Protected benefits and formerly protected benefits
  • Wraparound or wear-away benefits
  • Transition periods for minimum coverage and participation requirements
  • Health plan issues: COBRA and related matters
  • Severance

Block III: Welfare Benefit Plan Issues (Thursday and Friday)

ERISA Compliance for Health & Welfare Plans

  • Which welfare plans are subject to ERISA
  • Reporting requirements (Form 5500)
  • Disclosure requirements (SPD, SMM, etc.)
  • Electronic SPDs
  • Plan funding rules
  • Trust requirements
  • What funds are plan assets
  • Cafeteria plan trust moratorium
  • Fiduciary Obligations
  • Prohibited transaction issues
  • New DOL claim procedure requirements
  • ERISA 510 claims
  • Impact of ERISA on claims litigation
  • Preemption and state law regulation

HIPAA's Impact on Health Plans

  • HIPAA Portability
  • Pre-existing condition limitations
  • HIPAA non-discrimination requirements
  • HIPAA certificates of creditable coverage

HIPAA Privacy Overview

  • Privacy issues for health plan sponsors
  • Business associate contract requirements

The H & W Plan Alphabet

  • Impact of employment nondiscrimination laws on H & W benefits
  • ADEA (Erie update)
  • Pregnancy Discrimination Act
  • Americans With Disabilities Act
  • Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
  • Military leave (USERRA)
  • Health plan mandates
  • QMCSOs
  • Mental Health Parity
  • Medicare Secondary
  • Cancer Rights Act

Cafeteria Plan Issues

  • Cafeteria plan basics
  • Which benefits can be pre-taxed
  • Who can participate
  • The irrevocable election rule and change in status exceptions
  • Health FSAs
  • Which expenses qualify
  • Claim substantiation rules
  • Dependent Care FSAs
  • Which expenses qualify
  • Impact on child care tax credit
  • Transit/Parking Plans

Consumer Driven Health Care

  • Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
  • Introduction to HRA rollover accounts

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Certificate In Employee Benefits Law Seminar
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