The Policy & ERISA Desk 9 stories this week · 55 total

The Savers Match Enhancement Act would lift the federal matching rate to 100% of the first $2,000 contributed and index that ceiling to inflation, with the program's first payments not scheduled until 2027.

The 2010 rule barred compensated advisory work for government clients for two years after certain political contributions; the SEC would also drop the related recordkeeping requirements.

Employers can't fund accounts they can't verify, so the permanence of the government's clearinghouse decides whether contributions ever reach payroll.

Two government estimators sit four points apart on the same 2032 insolvency date, and the decumulation machinery of the DC system has no input for either of them.

A 20-page comment letter from two authors of the old penalty guidance asks the agency to make relief a documentation question before the per-diem ladder hardens into a final rule.

Natixis's 2026 index shows America spending more per person on healthcare than any of the 44 nations it ranks, and finishing 25th on health.

The updated estimate splits into roughly 61 million employees and 15 million self-employed, and EIG's match data show employer money landing well above the typical worker.

Treasury counts 7 million sign-ups; Commonwealth finds 5 percent among the low- and moderate-income households the account was written for.

Three agencies would have a year to name the qualifying jobs, and that list — not the age — decides which clients get the earlier claim.

Three lawmakers want the FBI and Labor's inspector general to test nearly 12,000 supportive submissions, which turns a policy fight into an evidentiary one.

The U.S. fell to No. 24 in Natixis's 2026 index, and an eight-place drop in its finances category puts the repair with Congress, not with plan menus.

The eight-place drop inside Finances in Retirement tracks prices and sovereign debt, leaving the private-assets and income-feature fights to answer a question the index never asked.

Passage of S. 2403 gives ESOP fiduciaries a statutory good-faith defense, but the amendment is prospective, so the near-term docket barely moves while valuation firms absorb the new risk.

Three committee ranking Democrats are asking the FBI and the DOL inspector general to test whether the record supporting the private-markets rule includes thousands of comments nobody actually filed.

A 401(k) Specialist column argues ERISA's real failure is moral courage; the fix it implies is narrower than the fix it claims.

Required amendments now run on a rolling clock tied to the annual Required Amendment List, pushing Roth catch-up adoption to 2029, while optional amendments keep the 2026 date.

Fiduciaries get statutory cover for relying on a 59-60 appraisal, and the litigation that follows is likely to chase the appraiser instead of the number.

A 401-14 vote settles the process question for ESOP fiduciaries and pushes the litigation toward appraiser independence.

A résumé that runs from EBSA enforcement through in-house product counsel at three providers shows where retirement law is being repriced.

The brief shows the participation gap opens at enrollment and the balance gap peaks two decades later, which makes the sponsor's match threshold the only decision that matters.

Pontera's webinar with former EBSA chief Lisa Gomez makes the legal argument for participant-chosen advisers; Fidelity's December access cutoff shows who still controls the account.

A former assistant secretary of labor told a vendor-hosted panel that participant-chosen advisers are permitted — which leaves the gate where it always really was, in procurement.

Groom Law guidance says the right to a paper copy covers any electronically furnished document and survives an employer's exemption from annual paper statements.

An ARA study that counts employer contributions and tax-deferred growth shifts the fairness fight from contribution limits to the match.

A magistrate's second dismissal recommendation in the $8.05 billion Athene annuity case turns on a single ERISA question: who selected the annuity provider?

August recalibration lowers variable-rate premium bases and sets late-payment interest at 7% through the fourth quarter.

Notice 2026-49's voluntary framework gives plan administrators and recordkeepers a benchmark they'll be measured against.

Eight in 10 Americans now see a retirement crisis, and the latest NIRS survey finds debt and housing costs have replaced the savings gap as the dominant threat to retirement security.

Large employers will need a payroll vendor contract for eligibility and enrollment before any Trump Account contribution reaches a worker.

A 31-provider audit finds marketing permissions and unspecified data-selling rules in plan privacy disclosures, and the GAO wants the Labor Department to set limits.

The median middle-class household has $64,000 in retirement accounts, and debt repayment outranks retirement saving as a financial priority.

The Labor Department's inspector general signed on to the National Fraud Detection Center, putting investigators alongside federal prosecutors in a shift from reactive referrals to embedded detection.

Proposed single-employer funding rules reach back into the closed plan year and settle where plan expenses sit in target normal cost.

The Conference Board's scenarios make the benefit cut the default planning assumption; the transfer is the tail case.

The ruling lets ERISA plaintiffs plead imprudence without a matched benchmark, setting up a Supreme Court test of how specific the comparison must be.

Groom Law guidance puts mandatory employee contributions inside the Section 415 annual additions count.