BENEFITS DIGEST

A layoff can quietly trigger a 401(k) problem. If employer-initiated turnover hits 20% in a plan year, the IRS presumes a partial plan termination, and everyone affected becomes fully vested in employer contributions no matter what the vesting schedule says. Troutman warns that a multi-year phased RIF can stretch the measurement period, that some voluntary quits connected to the RIF count too, and that missing one of these invites participant lawsuits and IRS or DOL audits. Worth reading before the workforce decision is final, not after.

Field Assistance Bulletin 2026-01 made late deposits of employee deferrals and loan repayments a DOL enforcement priority, and the agency is mining Form 5500 filings to find them. Small plans must deposit within seven business days of withholding; larger plans must deposit as soon as amounts can reasonably be segregated, typically two to three business days, with the fifteenth business day an emergency outer limit rather than a deadline. Ferenczy recommends written deposit procedures and prompt engagement with the Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program when deposits slip.

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.

Hall Benefits Law's half-year policy roundup names four developments: the DOL's proposed safe harbor for fiduciaries selecting 401(k) investments, EBSA's shift to fewer but more participant-focused enforcement interactions, SEC moves to streamline executive compensation disclosure by company size, and EBSA's technical release that ERISA Title I generally does not apply to Trump Accounts. A mixed but useful mid-year checkpoint for benefits and executive compensation practice.

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.

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

DOL's semiannual regulatory agenda, where EBSA rulemakings get sequenced. The notable thing is how empty it is: the EBSA section carries exactly one entry, the IDR Operations rule, and that rule was already finalized on June 4. In other words, EBSA currently has no pending rulemaking on the public agenda at all.

On April 14, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2026-01 (“FAB 2026-01” or the “FAB”).

On July 23, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”) published a proposed rule (the “Proposed Rule”) that would create a new, additional safe harbor for group health plan administrators to furnish participant and beneficiary disclosures electronically by default.

EBSA's proposed rule, on public inspection today and scheduled for Federal Register publication July 23, would establish rules for electronic disclosure of required documents by ERISA group health plans. The 2020 e-delivery safe harbor covered only retirement plans; this 96-page proposal addresses the health and welfare side. The comment deadline will be set at publication.

The DOL recently released its Agency Rule List, which contains several important retirement and health plan initiatives for this year

EBSA's 2026 regulatory agenda lists ~20 guidance projects in pre-/proposed/final rule stages, including the fiduciary investment-selection rule (comments analyzed through August, no target date), the

EBSA sent its replacement for the 2022 Biden-era ESG rule to OIRA on June 30, 2026; agenda target release July 2026. Expected to restrict fiduciary consideration of climate/social factors under the

An ongoing dispute about a Department of Labor advisory opinion published last September raises a basic but unanswered question under the ERISA: What is a bonus? The answer to this simple question is

EBSA enforcement-priority shift: 'will not regulate through enforcement'; focus on significant-harm / bad-faith cases; pending and proposed ESOP valuation investigations reviewed against a fairness

Proposed rule requiring PBMs servicing group health plans to disclose direct and indirect compensation to plan fiduciaries, extending the ERISA §408(b)(2) service-provider fee-disclosure framework