The 2018 Pension Answer Book

The 2018 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 2018 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 2018 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 2018 Pension Answer Book will give you the up-to-date, reliable answers you need.

The 2018 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 2018 Pension Answer Book are the following:

• IRS internal guidance for its agents who are reviewing benefit formulas in cash balance plans
• IRS Field Directive providing guidance to its agents on the application of accrued benefit rules to pending requests for determination letters by pension equity plans (PEPs)
• IRS guidance regarding the applicability of the market rate of return limitation rules to certain defined benefit plans
• Extension of temporary nondiscrimination relief for closed defined benefit plans
• More on professional employer organizations (PEOs) and Certified Professional Employer Organizations (CPEOs)
• For 2018, the dollar limitation applicable to the annual retirement benefit under a defined benefit plan ($220,000), the annual addition under a defined contribution plan ($55,000), compensation ($270,000), and the elective deferral limit ($18,500) all increased
• Self-employed individual's plan contribution deduction
• IRS guidance on steps needed to request approval for substitute, plan-specific mortality tables
• IRS updated regulations providing mortality tables
• IRS updated guidance concerning approval for a change to the funding method used to determine the minimum funding standard
• More IRS rulings on minimum funding waivers
• More IRS rulings on extension of the amortization period
• Model amendments concerning bifurcated benefit distribution options
• IRS proposed regulations to update the final regulations regarding the minimum present value requirements and to eliminate certain obsolete provisions
• More cases on claims for benefits
• IRS advice that a plan administrator may require the plan participants to receive required minimum distributions (RMDs) on a date specified in the plan document or on a date chosen by the plan administrator
• More Private Letter Rulings concerning required minimum distributions
• Taxation of disability payments after attaining normal retirement age
• IRS guidance for its agents who are reviewing plan loans to participants
• IRS guidance on how the cure period applies for a participant who failed to make installment payments required under the terms of a plan loan
• IRS Employee Plans Compliance Unit (EPCU) 412(i) support project to perform compliance checks
• More cases concerning the 10 percent penalty tax on early distributions
• Updated rules regarding user fees for determination letters
• New rules regarding pre-approved plans
• Updated rules regarding IRS determination letter program
• Revenue Procedure updating IRS's Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS)
• PBGC guidance regarding filings for plans involved in a spinoff, merger, or consolidation
• Inflation adjustment for certain late filing and other penalties
• More on Summary Plan Descriptions (SPDs) and penalties
• Updated Department of Labor (DOL) guidance that encourages the exercise of shareholder rights, including proxy voting
• More breach of fiduciary duty cases
• Court cases concerning who must prove causation of loss where a party alleges fiduciary breach
• Breach of fiduciary duty cases and arbitration agreements
• More cases on the award of attorneys' fees
• More on DOL regulation concerning who is a fiduciary as a result of giving investment advice
• More on two DOL prohibited-transaction class exemptions and amendments to others
• PBGC benefit guarantees
• IRS internal guidance for its agents who are examining 401(k) and 403(b) plans for whether the plans are properly documenting hardship distributions
• IRS proposed regulations amending the definitions of qualified nonelective contributions (QNECs) and qualified matching contributions (QMACs)
• More employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) cases
• More multiemployer plan withdrawal liability decisions
• IRA bankruptcy cases
• More on domestic international sales corporation (DISC)/Roth IRA transactions
• Demise of myRA accounts
• Rollover of IRA distribution from a failed financial institution made by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
• United States Supreme Court decision affecting church plans
• IRS ruling concerning election by a church plan to satisfy the minimum coverage and nondiscrimination requirements
• More on qualified domestic relations orders (QDROs)

Previous Edition: The 2017 Pension Answer Book, ISBN 9781454871088