By Arris Reddick Murphy
With the current focus in the retirement plans community on missing and unresponsive 401(k) plan participants, practitioners have sought to prompt the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to issue additional guidance to clarify the meaning of a “reasonable search” for participants by an ongoing plan. As the community waits, plan fiduciaries are reviewing their current missing-participant procedures and seeking strategies that will satisfy DOL scrutiny in the event of an audit.

By Alexandra Oxyer
A court recently granted an employee's request for summary judgment (dismissal in her favor without a trial)—something that rarely happens—on her federal wage and hour claim. It found that the on-call nurse was entitled to overtime pay even though she wasn't always "working" and was able to do personal errands such as grocery shopping, reading, and talking with friends.

By Todd B. Castleton
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has proposed regulations that would change the rules for hardship distributions from 401(k) and 403(b) retirement plans by replacing the facts-and-circumstances test for determining hardship eligibility with a three-part general standard.

By Jane Meacham, Contributing Editor
Look to the past to predict the future when it comes to pension investing, defined benefit (DB) retirement plan sponsors are urged by global advisory and broking firm Willis Towers Watson (WTW) in a new paper on investment actions recommended for 2019.

By Michael Futterman and Jaime Touchstone, Futterman Dupree Dodd Croley Maier LLP
A class of cable service technicians sued their employer to collect payment for the commuting time they spent transporting equipment in company cars under a voluntary program.

By Jane Meacham, Contributing Editor
The Society of Actuaries’ (SOA) latest annual update of its mortality improvement scale reflects a slight decline in U.S. life expectancy, which could reduce employer balance-sheet liabilities for pensions by about 0.3% on average for plans electing to use it.

By Jane Meacham, Contributing Editor
The balance sheet for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s (PBGC) single-employer plan moved into the black in the latest fiscal year (FY) to continue a trend of better results, but the multiemployer plan remains in deficit and at risk of insolvency in as few as 7 years, according to the agency’s FY 2018 Annual Report.