QPA Insights
Welcome to QPA Insights, where we’ll share knowledge and insights into ERISA 3 (38) qualified plans. Here our highly experienced team will write on topics plan sponsors and advisers alike will be interested in such as the regulatory environment, tools, plan management, and more.
Feel free to reach out to us at any time if you have questions about what you’ve read or would like to contact the author.
More Reasons to Care About Your Employees’ Financial Wellness
"Workers throughout the United States are struggling with managing their finances, and that stress could spill into their company's bottom lines." That's the opening line of this PLANSPONSOR Article about a recent Mercer study. It does not get much clearer than that....
IRS Provides Loan and Hardship Relief for Participants Affected by Hurricane Harvey
Last week the IRS acted swiftly to provide much needed relief for the thousands affected by Hurricane Harvey. More specifically, Announcement 2017-11 greatly relaxes loan and hardship distribution rules in an effort to help those individuals and their families in a...
Understanding How America Saves
As we work to implement thoughtful plan design structures and to ensure participants receive adequate opportunity for investment diversification, it's helpful to study how participants are using various plan features. Further, it's helpful to assess the trends and...
Talking Points on Plan Loans
Many plan sponsors make plan loans available in the hopes that they will make employees more comfortable about saving. After all, doesn't it seem more appealing to put away money if you know you retain access to it? Of course, once loans are made available - and once...
Thinking About Automatic Enrollment and Automatic Escalation?
Carve out some time to read our White Paper on "The Positive Impact of Automatic Features", which you can find here.
Plan Sponsors Sensing Increased Responsibility
In a meeting with a plan committee yesterday, we asked about the plan's primary purpose. Have you discussed that question within your committee or trustee meetings? If so, it's likely that the answer has begun to shift over the last few years. The old answer was...
Survey Says: The Human Touch is Irreplaceable
We traveled to Houston last week to visit with plan sponsors who are seeking additional solutions to reach their employees. The conversations demonstrated a common theme: despite the development of additional electronic tools, people want to talk to people -...
Financial Wellness: It Matters to Your Employees and Your Company
In the last couple of years employers have become more aware of the importance of their employees' financial wellness. We know that employees now expect their employers to provide financial wellness education. We also know that employers are increasingly doing so. In...
DOL Seeks Additional Input on Fiduciary Advice Rules
The Department of Labor has again indicated that it may be open to softening the new fiduciary rules. Just before the Independence Day holiday, the DOL released an advance draft of a "Request for Information" (RFI), which seeks public input on two topics: . (1) the...
The New Fiduciary Advice Rule Applies Today
Monday marks the first business day on which the new definition of “fiduciary advice” will govern the recommendations plan sponsors and individuals receive from financial professionals. Yes, the rule became applicable on Friday. But among many indications of the...