The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C. Blog

Equitable has introduced Equitable Retirement Access, the company’s 401(k) Pooled Employer Plan (PEP).

The Equitable Retirement Access plan will include the following providers:

• PlanConnect LLC, an affiliate of Equitable, serves as the recordkeeper

• Pension Plan Specialists will act as the Pooled Plan Provider, third-party administrator, and 3(16) administrative fiduciary

• SWBC Retirement Plan Services will function as the 3(38) investment fiduciary

• Plan Notice LLC will handle notice delivery services.

The PEP is available through the Equitable Retirement Vision platform, an existing retirement plan platform with a group fixed annuity contract issued by Equitable Financial Life Insurance Company.

According to new research published by the Investment Company Institute (ICI), Americans like their retirement plans. ICI’s research report “American Views on Defined Contribution Plan Saving, 2024” finds that almost 75% of Americans had favorable impressions of 401(k) and similar defined contribution (DC) plan accounts.

That’s important as Congress needs to pass tax legislation, and someone there will float the idea of eliminating the tax deferral aspect of their 401(k) plans, which most taxpayers would oppose.

I was a first-year law student participating in moot court, just because all second-year students participated even when I knew I had zero interest in ever being a litigator. In those days, my mother would buy me these cheap character ties at Marshall’s, as well as these really nice Nicole Miller ties (it was the 1990s).

The second-year students were in charge of the moot court and one of the judges in my case was a highly opinionated student government official. After I presented, he criticized my Flintstones tie as being inappropriate. I don’t judge people by the look of their tie, but a lot of people do. While I like to wear Mitchell and Ness jerseys and Vineyard Vines shirts, I don’t wear them to important meetings with potential clients and if I do dress that way with other providers, I warn them ahead of time that I’m doing it. The point is that while you should never judge a book by its cover, people still do and you shouldn’t lose a potential opportunity just because of the way you dress.

As a side note, this criticizing judge was pompous and a know-it-all all. His law license was later suspended for lying to the FBI.

A financial advisor called me and asked me if there was a problem that an insurance policy paid by a 401(k) plan had the policy in the name of the participant. Considering it was a plan asset, I thought so. If the participant is a plan fiduciary, a government agent could get the wrong idea that a prohibited transaction was committed.

Poor advice to plan sponsors on the smallest details could give the wrong impression to a government auditor. I will never get the actuary who told a plan sponsor client that it was no problem to issue a check from a defined benefit plan to a plan sponsor’s subsidiary, reasoning that the owners of the company were getting the bulk of the benefits under the plan. Well, the Department of Labor assumed the worst (embezzlement) and the actuary never provided 20-plus years of valuations that would detail the benefit owned to the owners of the plan sponsor.

There is nothing worse than giving bad advice that leads to wrongful impressions by a government agent.

I always say that picking a plan provider just on price is a bad idea and I will say that picking a provider just on your years of experience is another folly.

I have 26 years of experience and when I had a couple of years of experience, I noticed that there were some plan administrators and actuaries that had 20 plus experience, who had no idea what they were doing. Time doesn’t make someone any good, perhaps when they started, they didn’t get the proper training or they didn’t partake in any continuing education., Whatever it is, there are many people out there with lots of experience who don’t know what they do. Years of experience don’t matter, it’s the quality of the experience that does.

Years ago, I knew a young attorney who was a real estate and tax attorney. A potential client for a real estate sale didn’t hire him because she thought he was too young. She hired an older attorney, who then embezzled around $150,000 from the sale of her home.

There are so many criteria you should consider in hiring a plan provider and harping on one criterion is a mistake.

The Department of Labor announced that its Employee Benefits Security Administration has updated its Voluntary Fiduciary Compliance Program, allowing employers more efficient ways to voluntarily correct compliance issues in retirement, health, and other employee benefit plans.

The biggest change is allowing a self-correction tool that employers can use to fix delays in salary deferral contributions, and participant loan repayments to retirement plans. Employers and other plan officials can also fix mistakes related to participant loans from retirement plans, as provided by the SECURE 2.0 Act.

These updates take effect on March 17, 2025. Having done so many of these VFCP applications.

That 401(k) National Virtual Conference had its 5th edition on January 30-31. Over 110 people signed up for a free event with over 8 hours pf programming.

A wide variety of presenters broadcast worthwhile content to plan providers, as well as an edition of That 401(k) Virtual Bunch with Mike Webb, Bill Schories, and James Holland.

A broadcast of both days is available on YouTube. A date for the 2026 version will be announced.

There is this scene in Donnie Brasco when the crew has to make their take for the week and they try to hammer a New York City parking meter for the coins. This reminds me of certain ERISA litigators looking for more plan sponsor lawsuits.

Thanks to fee disclosure and Federal courts not interpreting high costs as a de facto breach, ERISA litigators need new avenues for litigation. The Black Rock Target Date Fund cases were a bust, as are most of these plan forfeiture cases. Perhaps there will be a case about notices to former participants or moving missing participants into IRA accounts.

Whatever it is, we must remain vigilant in keeping plan sponsors like you, out of potential harm’s way.

When I started my law practice almost 15 years ago, I started to look at what the competition was doing and I decided to do things differently. Other ERISA attorneys charge by the hour, they charge for every phone call, and I just didn’t want to nickel and dime clients’ potential referral sources. Helping plan providers on the house by providing articles and answering questions went a long way.

As a plan provider, you also need to stand out among the crowd. Look at other competing plan providers and do things differently because the competition is usually focusing on one area. If I were a financial advisor, I’d focus on participant education/enrollment meetings. If I was a third-party administrator, I’d focus on communication with the plan sponsor. I think those are areas that many providers aren’t, just a free suggestion.

I’m a long-suffering fan of the Mets and, I’ve had to deal with the underwhelming leadership of several former Mets managers. It seems we may have a winner with Carlos Mendoza.

The point is that when hiring employees, hire the best people for the job. Never let your ego or standing get in the way of hiring the best candidates available, period. If you’re incompetent and you just want to hire employees who are worse than you, they’re still going to eventually find out that you’re not up to the task.