House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg and Workforce Protections Subcommittee Chairman Ryan Mackenzie have asked the DOL Inspector General to expand its information-sharing audit beyond EBSA, the Wage and Hour Division, and the Office of the Solicitor, the three agencies covered by the IG's June 30 report on the Department's common interest agreements with outside litigants. The August 26 letter asks whether the same informal sharing practices extended to other major DOL enforcement agencies.

Plan sponsors of qualified defined contribution plans such as 401(k) plans must update their pre-approved plans every six years to reflect law changes and to maintain their pre-approved status with the IRS. Boutwell Fay walks through what the fourth remedial amendment cycle requires and the timing sponsors should be planning around.

Milliman reviews the IRS's recent communications on direct rollovers for qualified DB and DC plans, with recommendations, procedures, and next steps for plan sponsors.

The IRS recently released Notice 2026-49, proposing sample forms and a standardized five-step process for rollovers to eligible retirement plans under Section 324 of the SECURE 2.0 Act.

On August 20, 2026, Treasury and the IRS published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would significantly modify the minimum funding rules for single-employer defined benefit pension plans under Code section 430, including a new anti-abuse rule.

Milliman reviews key provisions of the proposed IRS regulations that would modify how single-employer DB plans determine their minimum funding requirements.

Transamerica Institute study shows financial pressures are eating into middle-class workers' ability to save, and prompting them to work longer.

Transamerica Institute finds more middle-class workers expect to fund retirement through 401(k)s and other savings, but financial pressures could derail those plans.

The ERISA consultants at the Retirement Learning Center address a question about liquidating a stable value investment in a client's 401(k) plan, and the market value adjustment and fiduciary liability issues the move can trigger.

The August Monthly Minute reminds plan sponsors of the upcoming SECURE 2.0 plan amendment deadline and highlights a Fourth Circuit decision reflecting the litigation impact of a delayed ERISA appeal determination.

Groom situates the new tri-agency FAQ relief against the litigation wave that produced it: by the firm's count, the HIPAA wellness program rules have drawn more than 80 putative class actions claiming that premium surcharges for tobacco use violate ERISA. The relief addresses the midyear reward-timing and notice-disclosure questions; the broader surcharge fights, including the pending Sixth Circuit appeal in the Progressive case, remain in the courts.

New tri-agency FAQ guidance issued August 26 addresses elements of the 2013 wellness program regulations that have been the subject of dozens of class actions in recent years.

HR Dive rounds up practitioner reaction to the tri-agency wellness surcharge FAQs, with attorneys noting that aspects of ERISA once seen as settled continue to be challenged.

On July 22, 2026, the DOL issued a proposed rule with a new safe harbor allowing group health plan administrators to provide required ERISA documents to participants and beneficiaries electronically.

Employers are nearing double-digit health cost increases, but many won't be able to take drastic cost-cutting measures until 2028 at the earliest, the Business Group on Health's president and CEO told HR Dive.

Thompson Hine warns employers about double dip health plan arrangements marketed as payroll-tax savings vehicles. Treasury and the IRS have said repeatedly that these arrangements do not work under the law, and employers who adopt them risk liability for back taxes, penalties, and costly W-2 corrections.

A settlement milestone rather than a new ruling. The court in Hoak v. Plan Administrator of the Plans of NCR Corp. preliminarily approved the $47.7 million deal for roughly 189 former NCR executives whose top hat plan annuities were converted to discounted lump sums, moving the long-litigated case to a final fairness hearing in November.

In Hudson Hospital OPCO v. Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company, No. 24-2830 (3d Cir. Aug. 26, 2026), the Third Circuit vacated the dismissal of three New Jersey hospitals' ERISA claims that Cigna underpaid them under the plans' MRC-1 and MRC-2 reimbursement provisions, while affirming dismissal of their reasonable-and-customary and fiduciary-duty theories. The partial revival sends a long-running provider-payment dispute back for another round on the plan-terms claims.

Roberts Disability Law walks through the Seventh Circuit's decision in Central States v. McClain, covered here yesterday from the slip opinion, affirming dismissal of the fund's ERISA preemption challenge to Arkansas Rule 128's pharmacy dispensing-fee and reporting requirements.

Kantor & Kantor's weekly survey leads with Laurel Hill Management Services v. La-Z-Boy, where the Sixth Circuit held a provider's claims preempted, reinforcing the circuit split with the Ninth Circuit's Healthcare Ally decision covered here last week. The same edition rounds up the week's district courts, including Kovacs v. Moradi, holding that restricted stock units are not ERISA plans, and Cregan v. Unum, finding that a voluntary accident plan failed the safe harbor on three of four prongs and is therefore ERISA-governed.

In Larkin v. Caremark Rx, No. 1:25-cv-07307 (S.D.N.Y.), participants allege the PBM wrongfully denied coverage for the GLP-1 drug Zepbound on medical-necessity grounds while steering them to Wegovy. According to early reports, the court has now declined to compel arbitration based on an arbitration provision in CVS's website terms of use, letting the ERISA coverage claims proceed. The order itself is not yet publicly posted, and the decision date is unconfirmed.

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development has issued new guidance confirming its position that employees who receive Temporary Disability Insurance or Family Leave Insurance benefits are entitled to job protection.