Benefits
Health, retirement and other employee benefit plans.
6 records
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Comments due
Employee Benefits Security Administration proposes default electronic delivery option for group health plan disclosures
- What changed
- The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) proposes a new, optional way for group health plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to deliver required notices electronically by default. Plans would post documents on a website and send an electronic notice, while people keep the right to free paper copies and to opt out.
- Who's affected
- Employers that sponsor ERISA-covered group health plans, their plan administrators, and insurers or third-party administrators that send plan disclosures for them. Other welfare plans, such as disability or life insurance, are not included.
- What to do
- This proposed rule creates no new duties for employers. If you sponsor a group health plan, consider whether you would use the new option, and send any comments by September 21, 2026.
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Effective
Employee Benefits Security Administration and partner agencies correct errors in the federal independent dispute resolution rule
- What changed
- Four federal agencies, including the Employee Benefits Security Administration at the Department of Labor, corrected typos and omissions in their June 4, 2026 final rule on the federal independent dispute resolution (IDR) process for out-of-network payment disputes. The agencies say the corrections make no substantive policy changes.
- Who's affected
- Employers that sponsor group health plans, especially self-insured plans, along with insurers, providers and facilities that take part in the federal IDR process.
- What to do
- This correction creates no new duties for employers. If your plan takes part in federal IDR disputes, consider making sure your insurer or third party administrator works from the corrected rule text, which applies beginning August 3, 2026.
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Comments due
Departments of Labor, the Treasury and Health and Human Services propose a new standalone excepted benefit for employer fertility coverage
- What changed
- The Departments of Labor, the Treasury and Health and Human Services propose letting employer group health plans offer fertility benefits as a new type of limited excepted benefit, which is generally exempt from federal health plan market rules. To qualify, the benefit would have to focus on diagnosing, mitigating or treating infertility and stay within a $120,000 lifetime limit per participant, indexed for medical inflation.
- Who's affected
- Private and non-federal government employers that sponsor group health plans, and the insurers that serve them, but only if they choose to offer this benefit. The proposal sets no employer size threshold.
- What to do
- This proposed rule creates no duties for employers now. Comments are due July 13, 2026. As proposed, the option would be available for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2027.
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Comments due
Employee Benefits Security Administration proposes a safe harbor for fiduciaries choosing retirement plan investment options
- What changed
- The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) proposes a rule under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) on how fiduciaries choose investment options for participant-directed retirement plans such as 401(k) plans. A fiduciary that weighs six factors (performance, fees, liquidity, valuation, benchmark and complexity) would be presumed to have acted prudently, and the proposal says ERISA neither requires nor bars any type of investment, including alternative assets.
- Who's affected
- Employers that sponsor participant-directed plans and the people or committees who pick the plan's investment menu, along with their investment advisers and plan service providers. The agency expects many small plans to be affected mostly through their service providers.
- What to do
- This proposal creates no new duties for employers, and the safe harbor would be voluntary if finalized. Comments are due on or before June 1, 2026. Plan investment committees may want to review how they document fund selections against the six proposed factors.
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Comments due
Employee Benefits Security Administration proposes paper statement and notice changes to retirement plan electronic delivery safe harbors
- What changed
- The Department of Labor proposes changes to its two electronic delivery safe harbors for retirement plan disclosures, to carry out the paper benefit statement rules in section 338 of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. This is a proposal, and comments are due April 27, 2026.
- Who's affected
- Sponsors and administrators of retirement plans (other than one-participant plans) covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) that deliver disclosures electronically under either safe harbor. The proposal has no small plan exemption.
- What to do
- This proposal creates no new duties for employers. If finalized, it would change the conditions plans must meet to use the safe harbors. Consider reviewing it with your plan's recordkeeper and commenting by April 27, 2026. Until a final rule or other guidance, the Department says it will not take enforcement action against plan administrators that follow a reasonable, good faith reading of the proposal.
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Effective
Employee Benefits Security Administration restores the 1975 five-part test for investment advice fiduciaries after courts vacated its 2024 rule
- What changed
- The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) is removing its 2024 investment advice fiduciary rule, which courts vacated, and putting the 1975 five-part test back in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), effective April 20, 2026. It also republishes Prohibited Transaction Exemption (PTE) 2020-02 without its 2024 amendments and says the exemption's entire preamble is effectively vacated.
- Who's affected
- Employers that sponsor retirement or other plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), plan fiduciaries, and the financial firms and advisers that give investment advice to plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs). The document sets no size threshold.
- What to do
- This rule creates no new duties for employers: EBSA says it affects no legal rights or obligations, because the 2024 rule never took effect. Benefits teams may want to stop relying on the PTE 2020-02 preamble, including its rollover advice guidance, which EBSA now treats as vacated.