Retirement Account Archives - Broker-Dealer Regulation & Litigation Insights

Subject: Retirement Account

A New Opportunity for 529 Account Beneficiaries – Tax-Fee Rollovers to Roth IRAs

Beneficiaries of qualified tuition programs under Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code (“529 accounts”) will have a new opportunity starting January 1, 2024. Under SECURE Act 2.0 (the “Act”), 529 account beneficiaries will be able to rollover funds from the 529 account into a Roth IRA without incurring tax or penalties providing certain requirements are met.

Broker-dealers and registered representatives (“advisors”) will want to know about this rule so as to advise families and students about the funding and related planning considerations for 529 accounts.

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Tax Credits for Starting Up Small Employer Plans: What You Need to Know

Key Takeaways:

Starting with tax years beginning after December 31, 2022, a small employer can take advantage of significant tax credits under SECURE Act 2.0 (the “Act”) for establishing a new retirement plan. Under the Act, the tax credits are available for plan administrative and contribution costs.

The full tax credit is available to employers with 50 or fewer employees and there is a partial credit available to employers with 51 to 100 employees. There are several additional conditions for eligibility as well.

Broker-dealers and registered representatives (“advisors”) will want to know about these credits in order to educate small businesses and assist them in establishing plans to take advantage of the credits.

The Credit for Plan Start-Up Costs

Eligible Small Employers

Advisors should educate small employers about the available tax credit for the administrative costs of setting up and operating an eligible employer plan for the first three years in which the plan is maintained. In order to qualify for the credit, the following conditions must be met:

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Broker-Dealer Regulation & Litigation Digest – Summer 2021

The Broker-Dealer Regulation & Litigation Digest is a periodic compilation of the most read blog posts published here during the last few months. Here you can catch up on what you missed or re-read these popular posts.

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Broker-Dealer Regulation & Litigation Digest – Spring 2021

The Broker-Dealer Regulation & Litigation Digest is a periodic compilation of the most read blog posts published on the Broker-Dealer Law Blog during the last few months. Here you can catch up on what you missed or re-read these popular post.

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Broker-Dealer Services to Plans and IRAs: Impact of the DOL Fiduciary Advice Exemption

The Department of Labor (DOL) confirmed on February 12 that the Trump-era Prohibited Transaction Exemption 2020-02 (PTE) would go into effect as scheduled on February 16, 2021. The PTE will likely affect the business of broker-dealers that regularly make investment recommendations to IRA owners, as well as retirement plans and their participants (including rollover recommendations). This is due in part to the requirements of the PTE itself, but also because the rulemaking includes new interpretations that will expand the circumstances under which broker-dealers and their associated persons will be deemed to be advice fiduciaries. (The exemption refers to broker-dealers as “financial institutions” and their associated persons as “investment professionals” and this article uses those terms.)

As a result of these changes, broker-dealers need to re-evaluate whether and when they (and their investment professionals) may be fiduciaries, and where they are fiduciaries, they need to develop compliant practices, policies and procedures.

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SECURE Act 2.0: Key Provisions Affecting Retirement Plans

Late last year, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-MA) and Ranking Member Kevin Brady (R-TX) introduced the Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2020 (SECURE 2.0), a bipartisan legislative proposal that includes changes designed to encourage plan adoption, promote retirement savings, and fix certain plan administration problems.

As retirement income issues gain an expanding focus, we think it is important for broker-dealers, RIAs and their advisors to understand changes that could impact their clients. In this post, we comment on a number of the key provisions.
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Broker-Dealer Regulation & Litigation Digest – Fall 2020

Welcome to the Broker-Dealer Regulation & Litigation Digest – a periodic compilation of the most popular blog posts from the Broker-Dealer Law Blog during the last few months. If you don’t already receive our posts, you can subscribe to the blog.

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CARES Act: Special Distributions to Qualified Individuals

The CARES Act includes a provision that can help participants who are affected by the coronavirus (qualified individuals*) by permitting them to take a special coronavirus-related distribution (CRD) this year. As a financial professional who assists plans or plan participants, you should be aware of the rules applicable to CRDs so that you can be in a position to help your clients. That will include, for plans, whether and how to implement CRDs, and for participants, whether to take a CRD. Note: though we discuss this in the context of 401(k) plans, the CRD provision applies to all qualified plans, 403(b) plans and IRAs.

The following chart compares the CRD to other “distributable events.” Following the chart, we address issues that you may wish to discuss with your clients.

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CARES Act Required Minimum Distribution Rules: Helping Your Clients Deal with the Issues

This post outlines CARES Act provisions that affect your plan sponsor clients, plan participants and IRA clients, so you can help them navigate the new rules. This post addresses the rules on required minimum distributions (RMDs). In future posts, we’ll discuss the special coronavirus-related distributions (CRDs) and the temporary loan enhancement rules.

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The Continuing Convergence of Retail and Retirement Regulatory Oversight

Last month the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) issued its “2019 Examination Priorities.” The release of OCIE’s 2019 Priorities this year was earlier than in years past. In retrospect, the date of issuance being the last day before the vast majority of the SEC staff was furloughed may just be coincidental, but the federal government shutdown allowed the industry more time to study OCIE’s 2019 Priorities for compliance planning for the upcoming year. Another impact of the shutdown and furloughs in an area directly related to OCIE’s first priority is that the SEC’s efforts and the timing of the finalization of the Reg BI proposals have very likely been slowed as well. The recent ending of the SEC furloughs and OCIE’s continuing prioritization of retail and retirement regulatory issues presents us with an opportune time to re-visit these important topics.

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