The Departments released a timeline guide fixing the applicability date for each piece of the June Federal IDR Operations final rules. Two dates matter most for group health plans: the revised batching rules reach disputes whose open negotiation period begins on or after November 1, 2026, and the new remittance advice coding requirements attach to items and services furnished on or after January 1, 2027.

PBGC filed a comment letter supporting FASB's proposal to discount qualifying market return cash balance obligations at the plan's assumed interest crediting rate. An accounting change rather than a compliance obligation, but one that would move reported pension obligations for hybrid plans.

Groom and CAPTRUST experts field a plan-administration question with a trap in it: how mandatory employee contributions count against the section 415 annual additions limit.

Rosenbaum argues the first fifteen minutes of a DOL investigation tell the examiner how a plan is really run, and walks through the housekeeping that signals a well-governed plan before anyone opens the investment lineup.

Just 19 percent of small businesses offered a retirement plan in 2019. That figure is 31 percent in 2026, per Gusto's payroll data, with the biggest gains among hourly workers and the smallest employers. The SECURE incentives and state mandates are visibly working.

Segal breaks down the proposed employer-contribution rules for Trump Accounts: the cafeteria-plan interaction, the nondiscrimination testing overlay, and what benefits committees should be scoping before the rules finalize.

A pensions specialist on why stale actuarial assumptions and mortality tables are fiduciary exposure, after a recent ruling found outdated data can violate ERISA. Fiduciary responsibility extends past investment oversight and into plan math.

Target-date assets are positioned for another leg of growth as demand shifts toward personalization and retirement-income features. A companion data point to the $5.3 trillion TDF market coverage in Tuesday's issue.

Rosenbaum's warning on PEO 401(k) arrangements: joining a professional employer organization's plan is easy, and extracting your plan and its assets later is not. What to check before checking in.

With the mandatory Roth catch-up regime live for participants who earned over $150,000 in prior-year FICA wages, Lyndsey Barnett walks through the correction framework when a high earner's catch-up contributions land pre-tax by mistake. Timing matters: errors caught before W-2 filing are fixed by transferring the funds and correcting wage reporting, later discoveries require an in-plan Roth rollover with 2026 errors corrected by December 31, 2027, and no correction is generally required if the erroneous amount is $250 or less.

Groom walks through the DOL's proposed e-delivery safe harbor for group health plans: who counts as a covered individual, the notice-of-internet-availability mechanics, and where the proposal diverges from the 2020 retirement-plan framework. Comments are due September 21.

Average HSA balances hit a record high, but EBRI finds most account holders still contribute well below the maximum and few invest beyond cash. The accounts are growing as savings vehicles faster than they are maturing as investment vehicles.

Hall Benefits Law reads Kelly v. Altria for plan administrators: the Fourth Circuit's holding that a recordkeeping services agreement is a disclosable plan document raises the stakes on participant document requests, and on what your service agreements actually say.

Roberts breaks down Johnson v. Russell Investment Management, Tuesday's lead: the Eleventh Circuit held a plaintiff need not always offer an apples-to-apples comparator to prove objective imprudence, and qualitative evidence like negative analyst ratings and a fund's unpopularity can carry the point on its own.

Aramark's suit against its health-plan administrator survives dismissal: a Philadelphia federal judge held the company plausibly alleged Independence Administrators acted as an ERISA fiduciary. Plan-sponsor-versus-TPA fiduciary litigation keeps advancing.

A Minnesota district court refused to dismiss a disability claimant's STD and fiduciary claims where the defendants changed their denial rationale along the way. Roberts on why a moving-target denial keeps claims alive past the pleading stage.

ArentFox Schiff calls TMA III what it is: an important but incomplete provider win. Ghost rates and the bonus exclusion are out of the QPA math, while the agencies held the line on excluding single-case agreements.

ARA's take on the 3M ruling that led Tuesday's issue: a fiduciary-breach suit dismissed for lack of a meaningful benchmark got a second chance with the Fidelity Freedom suite as comparator, and made the most of it.

Ogletree's filing guide for Maryland employers electing a private FAMLI plan instead of the state program: the declaration of intent, what to file, and when.

The companion piece: Maryland DOL released new employer resources ahead of the FAMLI program's first deadlines, and Ogletree rounds up what is there.

The Northern District of Georgia preliminarily approved a $47.7 million settlement of claims by roughly 189 former NCR executives and their beneficiaries over a top hat plan. Groom's lesson for nonqualified plans: section 409A compliance does not excuse departing from what the plan document promises.

Groom flags the DOL Inspector General's June 30 report finding the Department needs stronger oversight and controls when it shares confidential information under common interest agreements.

New Jersey now requires employers to report every employee separation to the state DOL through a new portal, under a 2023 mandate taking effect. Mostly an HR-operations item, with severance and COBRA administration touchpoints.