Fidelity's second-quarter analysis found 401(k) and 403(b) balances grew 10.5% last quarter, the strongest quarterly growth since the end of 2020, driven by record participant savings rates alongside market gains.

The firm's quarterly update covers the quarter ended June 30. The lead item for benefits readers is the May 5 SEC staff guidance on pooled employer plans, in which the staff said it will not object if PEPs rely on the securities-law exemptions widely applicable to tax-qualified retirement plans and confirmed that employers offering their own securities through a PEP may use a Form S-8 registration statement. The update also notes the SEC's inflation adjustment raising the qualified client thresholds effective June 29.

The Insured Retirement Institute urged the Senate to take up the Retirement Fairness for Charities and Educational Institutions Act, which would give 403(b) plan participants access to collective investment trusts, an option long available to 401(k) plans at lower cost than comparable mutual funds.

An opinion piece examines how frequent job changes expose participants to what the author calls plan churn, the accumulation of small accounts, cash-outs, and lost momentum that follows each move between employer plans, and argues the problem deserves more attention from plan sponsors and recordkeepers than it gets.

Two sets of proposed regulations address how employer-sponsored Trump Account contribution programs will operate and how account assets may be invested before a beneficiary turns 18. Seyfarth walks through the requirements, including a separate written plan document, a $2,500 per-employee cap on tax-favored Section 128 contributions, cafeteria plan elections for employee pre-tax contributions to dependents' accounts, and nondiscrimination testing that tracks the dependent care FSA rules. Contributions default to an S&P 500 index ETF with ESG index funds off the table, and open questions remain, from tracking eligible dependents to coordinating contributions across a controlled group.

TrumpIRA.gov, the website powering the new Trump IRA savings accounts, is officially live, giving families and employers their first operational look at enrollment and account details for the program.

New projections released this week put next year's employer health benefit cost increase at the highest level in more than two decades, adding pressure on plan sponsors heading into 2027 renewals and budget season.

A reminder that the July 23 proposed rule extending a notice-and-access electronic delivery safe harbor to ERISA group health plans is open for comment through September 21. The proposal mirrors the 2020 retirement-plan safe harbor but is website-only, with no direct email option, reflecting HIPAA privacy concerns, and it preserves unlimited free paper copies and a full opt-out for participants.

Lockton reviews the tri-agency FAQs Part 74 non-enforcement position, under which the Departments will not act against health-contingent wellness programs that pay the full reward prospectively once a participant completes a reasonable alternative standard, rather than retroactively to the start of the plan year. The piece cautions that FAQ guidance does not bind courts and the surcharge class actions continue, so plans already paying retroactive rewards may want to stay the course.

Segal's reference table adds the 2026 employer shared responsibility penalty amounts, the 2026 affordability percentage, and the federal poverty line safe harbor for plan years beginning January 1, 2026, a practical one-stop update for ACA compliance planning.

MetLife's president of U.S. business makes the case that improving employees' benefits literacy leads to smarter choices for their health and financial wellness, an argument for personalized decision support as employers look for ways to get more from every premium dollar.

UnitedHealthcare published the list of roughly 1,700 codes that will no longer require preapproval starting in October, part of its pledge to cull 30% of its utilization management controls. The codes span a broad range of services, and plan sponsors should expect the change to surface in network and claims conversations this fall.

Proskauer breaks down the en banc Fifth Circuit's August 11 decision rejecting the government's qualifying payment amount methodology under the No Surprises Act. The court held that ghost rates, meaning contracted rates for services a provider never actually furnishes, must be excluded from the QPA, that bonus and incentive payments must be included because the statute's reference to total amounts means the entire amount owed, and that one-off single-case agreements stay out. Payors should watch for agency guidance on how QPAs get recalculated.

This week's roundup, a short-handed edition with no case of the week, flags two decisions as most notable. In Central States v. McClain the Seventh Circuit held that Arkansas's latest pharmacy benefit manager regulation survives ERISA preemption, and in Liu v. Kaiser the Ninth Circuit extended the substantial compliance doctrine to benefit elections. The edition also collects the week's decisions on arbitration, attorneys' fees, fiduciary breach, disability claims, preemption, exhaustion, and pleading.

An opinion piece argues that benefit advisers, who spend most of their time on medical trend, pharmacy costs, and renewals, should treat leave strategy as core advisory work rather than a topic to hand off, given how much absence management now shapes the employer benefits conversation.

Groom collects its August publications in one place, spanning DB plan funding rules, 45S credit and Saver's Match guidance, dependent care nondiscrimination, the wellness program enforcement relief, the e-delivery proposal, and the tobacco surcharge litigation.

A Consumer Policy Center paper argues 401(k)s carry more risk than traditional pensions and that the shift places increased weight on Social Security.

New Lockton data shows Texas employer health spending rising on medical prices, hospital market consolidation, and prescription drug costs even as utilization levels off.

Collective Health's Jacque Ludwig on how employers can drive engagement and make benefits easier to navigate as open enrollment season approaches.