Description

The 2019 Pension Answer Book covers the most recent legislative, regulatory, and case law developments so you're never without the information you need to detect compliance and regulatory issues - ensuring you make the right decisions and avoid potential problems.

The 2019 Pension Answer Book is a library unto itself, probing, explicating, and elucidating the most recent laws, regulations, private rulings, and court decisions that affect retirement plans. The advantages of owning this reference source are apparent after the very first consultation. Don't deny yourself and your clients this valuable research tool.

Exclusive Q & A Format

The 2019 Pension Answer Book is not only comprehensive in scope, but remarkably accessible, too. Clear, jargon-free language and an efficient question-and-answer format combine to speed your research every time. No wonder it's found on the desks of professionals and academics alike.

Always Up-To-Date...Always Accurate

Renowned pension expert Stephen J. Krass provides rigorous updates that regularly re-establish this remarkable volume as the definitive work of its kind. No matter what type of defined benefit, defined contribution or combo plan you're working with, The 2019 Pension Answer Book will give you the up-to-date, reliable answers you need.

The 2019 Pension Answer Book has been fully updated to reflect the changes made by the Revenue Rulings, Revenue Procedures, Notices, Announcements, and Private Letter Rulings issued by IRS, Opinion Letters and Interpretive Bulletins issued by DOL, final and proposed regulations issued by both IRS and DOL, and important case decisions. Discussed in The 2019 Pension Answer Book are the following:

• The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA)
• The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018
• Court decision that a company's plan designed to increase select employees' compensation and to assist in promoting their longevity with the company was not a defined contribution plan
• What is a pre-approved plan?
• IRS guidance about how to identify highly compensated employees (HCEs) in a qualified retirement plan's initial plan year or in a short plan year
• IRS advisory ruling stating that a combination of plans should satisfy the minimum aggregate allocation gateway to be eligible for testing for nondiscrimination on the basis of equivalent benefits
• For 2019, the dollar limitation applicable to the annual retirement benefit under a defined benefit plan ($225,000), the annual addition under a defined contribution plan ($56,000), compensation ($275,000) and the elective deferral limit ($19,000) all increased
• IRS explanations and examples of application of the limitation on annual additions to participants' defined contribution plan accounts when the limitation year is a short year
• Self-employed individual's plan contribution deduction
• Updated covered compensation tables
• IRS notice providing updated mortality tables
• More IRS rulings on minimum funding waivers and waiver of the liquidity shortfall
• Another request granted to a pension fund in critical and declining status to reduce benefits
• More IRS rulings on extension of the amortization period
• Another case concerning the anti-cutback rule
• More cases on claims for benefits
• Forum selection clauses
• More Private Letter Rulings concerning required minimum distributions (RMDs)
• A qualifying longevity annuity contract (QLAC) anomaly
• IRS instructions to its agents not to disqualify a 403(b) plan for failing to satisfy RMD requirements in certain circumstances
• IRS ruling concerning waiver of collecting benefit overpayments
• IRS ruling and court decision about annuity payments
• More on plan loans
• Slayer statutes and ERISA
• Life insurance policy proceeds and retained asset accounts
• IRAs, prohibited transactions, and the 10 percent penalty tax
• Updated rules regarding remedial amendment periods
• Updated rules regarding IRS determination letter program, individually designed plans, and pre-approved plans
• Revenue Procedure updating IRS's Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS)
• New IRS rules requiring electronic filing of a Voluntary Correction Program (VCP) submission
• IRS updated safe harbor explanations that satisfy the notice requirement under Code Section 402(f)
• IRS proposed regulations changing the rules regarding filing information returns electronically
• Inflation adjustment for certain late filing and other penalties
• ERISA claims procedures and summary plan descriptions (SPDs)
• More breach of fiduciary duty cases
• Validity or invalidity of Department of Labor (DOL) fiduciary conflict of interest rules
• Breach of fiduciary duty cases and arbitration agreements
• Another case on the award of attorneys' fees
• More on two DOL prohibited-transaction class exemptions and amendments to others
• Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) benefit guarantees
• PBGC regulations replacing guarantee limitations of substantial owners with majority owners
• PBGC regulations regarding prioritizing funding of all other benefits in priority category 4
• PBGC's new Missing Participants Program
• IRS ruling on a cash-or-deferred arrangement (CODA)
• IRS ruling on student loan repayment (SLR) nonelective contributions to 401(k) plans
• IRS final regulations amending the definitions of qualified nonelective contributions (QNECs) and qualified matching contributions (QMACs)
• IRS guidance for determining whether contributions to a 401(k) plan should be treated as QNECs or QMACs
• More employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) cases
• More multiemployer plan withdrawal liability decisions
• PBGC policy statement to assist multiemployer plans that request PBGC review of alternative plan rules for satisfying employer withdrawal liability
• The Segal Blend and withdrawal liability
• PBGC proposed regulations to reduce the reporting requirements for insolvent, or to be insolvent, multiemployer plans terminated by mass withdrawals
• Unrelated business taxable income (UBTI) and IRAs
• Loss on a fully cashed out nondeductible IRA no longer deductible
• Income tax and withholding and reporting requirements when IRA paid to state's unclaimed property fund
• New reason to make a qualified charitable distribution from an IRA
• Another IRA bankruptcy case
• No more Roth IRA conversion recharacterizations
• Loss on a fully cashed out Roth IRA no longer deductible
• Rollover of a qualified plan loan offset amount
• Rollover of an improper levy
• Pre-approved 403(b) plan opinion letter and an effective date addendum
• 403(b) plan investment in a limited liability company (LLC)
• Another court decision affecting church plans
• Revocation of an aggregation or disaggregation election by a church or church-related organization
• More on qualified domestic relations orders (QDROs)

Previous Edition: The 2018 Pension Answer Book, ISBN 9781454883579