ERISA News

President Trump has issued an Executive Order that will establish a marketplace website for private-sector IRAs to provide a solution for workers without access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan. The order directs Treasury to launch TrumpIRA.gov by January 1, 2027, highlighting IRA providers that accept Saver's Match contributions, provide investment options including life-cycle or target date funds, balanced funds, and funds maintaining principal, with low fees (overall net-expense ratios limited to .15 percent) and no minimum contribution requirement. 

Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Jim Banks (R-IN) have introduced the Investigation Status and Governance for Honest Transparency (INSIGHT) Act. According to a press release, the bill would require the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) to do the following.

The Internal Revenue Service has released Notice 2026-27, updating the static mortality tables for defined benefit plans for 2027. This guidance is issued pursuant to Treasury Regulation 430(h)(3)(A) and is applicable for purposes of calculating the funding target and other items for valuation dates occurring during the 2027 calendar year.

Senator Doc Marshall (R-KS) has introduced S. 4353, the Health Savings Account Expansion Act.

A bill re-introduced by Representative Bryan Steil (R-WI), titled the Protecting Americans' Retirement Savings From Politics Act, has cleared the House Financial Services Committee by a vote of 27-24.

Representatives Adrian Smith (R-NE), along with cosponsors Blake Moore (R-UT) and Brian Jack (R-GA), have introduced H.R. 8313, the Trump Accounts for All Generations Act.

Before SECURE 2.0’s enactment, SEP and SIMPLE IRA plan contributions had to be made as pre-tax contributions, but now employers may allow employees to elect to have contributions into a SEP or SIMPLE IRA made as Roth contributions.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued Revenue Ruling 2026-09 which contains the applicable federal rates (AFR) for May 2026. These rates are used for such purposes as calculating distributions from retirement savings arrangements that meet the requirements for substantially equal periodic payments (a 10 percent early distribution penalty tax exception), also referred to as “72(t) payments”.

The Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has issued Field Assistance Bulletin (FAB) 2026-01, a memorandum to EBSA staff from Assistant Secretary Daniel Aronowitz providing guiding principles for EBSA's enforcement priorities. The guidance notes that these priorities and principles are designed to ensure that EBSA’s enforcement is fair, even-handed, responsive, and focused.

The Department of Labor announced that it has issued Technical Release 2026-01, guidance reaffirming that proxy advisors that regularly engage in exercising control over shareholder rights attributable to ERISA plan assets, or provide advice for a fee about how ERISA plans should exercise proxy voting rights, must meet ERISA’s functional fiduciary requirements. The guidance follows an executive order, Protecting American Investors from Foreign-Owned and Politically-Motivated Proxy Advisors issued in December by President Trump spotlighting two large foreign-owned proxy advisors.