The Daily Brief for Benefits Professionals
BenefitsWire
Retirement Plans
June 30, 2026
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18 items · ~6 min read
In this issue
Regulatory Action and Guidance (8) · Retirement Plans (1) · Litigation (2) · General Benefits (7)
Regulatory Action and Guidance
8 items“The Supreme Court held 6-3 that Congress may not restrict the President's power to remove members of so-called independent executive agencies, overruling Humphrey's Executor v. United States. ... The FTC Act's removal restrictions violate the separation of powers and Humphrey's Executor is overruled.” MORE >>
Source: Gibson Dunn
“Maximum annual HSA contributions will rise from $4,400 to $4,500 for those with self-only insurance coverage, and from $8,750 to $9,000 for those with family coverage.” MORE >>
Source: Ascensus
“IRS Notice 2024-02 provides that, in general, the deadline to amend a qualified plan (that is not a governmental plan within the meaning of section 414(d) of the Code or an applicable collectively bargained plan) is December 31, 2026. This is the final match deadline with no extensions.” MORE >>
Source: Jackson Lewis (Benefits Law Advisor)
“Draft final regulations under Internal Revenue Code Section 414A, as added by Section 101 of the SECURE 2.0 Act, were submitted for review to the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) on June 23 by the Treasury Department and IRS. In general, Section 101 requires 401(k) and 403(b) plans to automatically enroll participants in the respective plans upon becoming eligible (employees may opt out of coverage). Under the legislation, the initial automatic enrollment amount is at least 3% but not more than 10%. Each year thereafter that amount is increased by 1% until it reaches at least 10%, but not more than 15%.” MORE >>
Source: NAPA Net
“With nearly 6 million elections to open a Trump Account received as of early June and with the program’s official launch happening on Saturday, July 4, the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service today issued Revenue Procedure 2026-25 providing a gift tax reporting safe harbor for certain contributions to Trump accounts created under the Working Families Tax Cuts.” MORE >>
Source: 401(k) Specialist
⏱ Effective Jul 31
The PBGC issued a final rule updating the spreads component of interest assumptions used to value benefits in terminating single-employer plans, applicable to plans with valuation dates from July 31 through October 30, 2026. Actuaries and plan administrators handling plan terminations must use these revised assumptions for asset allocation calculations during that period. MORE >>
Source: Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
“ASAP By Paul Pulver, Katherine Ford, and Ueli Sommer What happens when different sports cultures and legal frameworks converge on the same global stage? Our Labor & Employment World Cup 2026 series aims to find out.” MORE >>
Source: Littler
“In Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc.) 2026-25, the IRS provides a transfer tax safe harbor for certain individual donors who make one or more contributions to Trump accounts established under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 530A. The guidance says that certain contributions to Trump Accounts will be treated as completed gifts that are not gifts of future interests in property and to which the annual per-donee gift tax exclusion applies. Consequently, those taxpayers will not be required to file gift tax returns reporting those contributions.” MORE >>
Source: American Retirement Association
Retirement Plans
1 item“Many older fixed accounts and guaranteed contracts include provisions such as: These provisions vary by contract, but they can make replacing a legacy insurance product expensive. Imagine a fiduciary committee learns that replacing an inherited insurance contract could immediately reduce participant account values because of contractual exit costs. That creates a difficult choice. Leave the contract in place and continue earning below-market crediting rates. Or recognize a substantial immediate loss.” MORE >>
Source: The Commonsense 401(k) Project
Litigation
2 items“66 Franklin Street, Suite 300 Oakland, CA 94607 In Williams v. Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC Benefits and Investment Committee, No. 24-cv-07593-VC, 2026 WL 1865363 (N.” MORE >>
Source: Roberts Disability Law
[ERISA Litigation]
California Court Lets ESOP Non-Company Stock Suit Proceed“In Dawson-Roberts v. Norman S. Wright Mechanical Equipment LLC, the plaintiff alleged that the ESOP's OIA had grown from approximately $4 million in 2021 to $12 million in 2024 while invested in cash equivalents, and that the OIA would be worth more today had those assets been invested in a portfolio including stocks and bonds. The court largely denied the defendants' motion to dismiss. ... Splitting with Trull, the court rejected the defendants' reliance on ERISA's exemption from the duty to diversify plan assets afforded to ESOP fiduciaries, holding instead that the carveout is limited by its terms to company stock.” MORE >>
Source: Groom Law Group
General Benefits
7 items[Expert Analysis]
Developing Annuities Are Coming to More 401(k) Plans: DOL's March 2026 Fiduciary Rule and the Annuity Access Debate“The rule states that if the sponsor ensures that the asset's benefit is in line with its fees, then it has done its duty (i.e., shouldn't be sued). ... At the end of 2025, the DOL wrote an advisory opinion saying that an asset with an annuity component could serve as a default in workers' 401(k) plans if it is selected and monitored appropriately.” MORE >>
Source: Center for Retirement Research at Boston College
“Q: While we allow all employees the opportunity to make elective deferrals to our 403(b) plan, we have a large number of eligible employees who do not participate in our ERISA 403(b) plan, which creates a significant burden with respect to providing required plan communications to such participants.” MORE >>
Source: PLANSPONSOR
“U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) stressed her "strong opposition" to the DOL's proposed rule released in March, saying it would expose retirees to "assets that sophisticated investors are working to shed," and accelerate the "decline" of public markets. "A rule marketing as 'democratizing' access to private markets would in fact ratify a system in which the public markets—the markets that are actually open to, and protective of, hardworking Americans—continue to wither, while retirement savers are enlisted to backfill the capital issuers no longer need to raise in public view," Waters claimed.” MORE >>
Source: wealthmanagement.com
“The Trump administration's proposed rule, formally titled Fiduciary Duties in Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives and published March 30, is designed to eliminate that deterrent. It creates a process-based safe harbor: if a fiduciary documents a review covering six specific factors — performance history, fee transparency, liquidity, valuation methodology, benchmarking against comparable alternatives, and complexity — their investment decision is presumed to be reasonable and shielded from litigation. ... The rule does not give fiduciaries a new legal right to add crypto; they already had that. It gives them a presumption of prudence they can establish through documented process rath” MORE >>
Source: techtimes.com
[Expert Analysis]
Retirement benefits, hybrid work lose ground as employers cut costs“Companies are scaling back retirement benefits and flexible work options as economic uncertainty persists and employers reassess workplace strategies in the age of AI.” MORE >>
Source: Employee Benefit News
[Expert Analysis]
With the EEOC Poised to End EEO-1 Reporting, What’s Next for Employers?“On May 14, 2026, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) submitted a proposed rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to end mandatory EEO-1 reporting requirements under Title VII for (a) private sector employers with 100 or more employees and (b) federal contractors with more than 50 employees. ... The proposed rule will likely take weeks, potentially months, in OIRA review; OIRA has up to 90 days (until August 12, 2026) to complete its review.” MORE >>
Source: Foley & Lardner
“President Donald Trump nominated Acting Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling to permanently head the Department of Labor via a social media post on Monday. ... Sonderling needs Senate approval to remain in the post permanently, and his nomination will proceed through the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. ... If confirmed, Sonderling would continue to lead the DOL's efforts to oversee the country's workforce and advance several administration priorities, including a heavily watched rule often referred to as the alternative investments rule, which provides a legal framework for fiduciaries to consider when selecting any investment for retirement plans they oversee.” MORE >>
Source: PLANADVISER
Also of Note
- IRS Issues Notice 2026-34: Cumulative List of Changes for Pre-Approved Defined Benefit Plans (Cycle 4) — “Maximum annual HSA contributions will rise from $4,400 to $4,500 for those with self-only insurance coverage, and from $8,750 to $9,000 for those with family coverage.” (ascensus.com)
- Navigating Compliance Challenges in Employee Benefit Plans: Practical Insights and Case Studies — “Under SECURE 2.0, the DOL introduced a self-correction program for modest late contributions.” (Hall Benefits Law)
- Labor Department Sues CIT Trustee/Investment Advisor — “The suit focused on alleged violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) regarding the $5 billion Hand Composite Employee Benefit Trust and the actions (or lack thereof) of the company's CEO David Hand, its President Stephen Hand and several other individual members of the company's board of directors.” (American Retirement Association)
- Trump Announces Nomination of Sonderling as Next Labor Secretary — “President Trump on Monday announced in a social media post that he will nominate Keith Sonderling to be the next Secretary of Labor.” (American Retirement Association)
- Trump Taps Keith Sonderling to Lead Labor Department Permanently — “President Donald Trump said Monday on Truth Social he will nominate Keith Sonderling to be the Secretary of Labor, elevating him from the agency's acting director two months after Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned from the position amid abuse-of-power allegations.” (401(k) Specialist)
- Breaking: Empower to Acquire Milliman Retirement Administration Biz for $340 Million — “Empower and Milliman, Inc.” (401(k) Specialist)
- How Could AI Help Public DC Plans? — “By: Thomas Anichini, GuidedChoice When people hear “AI,” they often think of large language models and virtual assistants.” (NCPERS)
- Trump taps acting Secretary Sonderling to lead DOL — “The president plans to nominate Keith Sonderling — a Republican with several years of agency experience — to serve as secretary of labor, according to a Monday social media post.” (HR Dive)
- Recent Changes to Indiana Annexation Law — “New changes have been made to Indiana’s annexation notice requirements and contiguity guidelines under SEA 59 and HEA 1058, along with updated disannexation GIS reporting requirements under Sections 233 and 234 of HEA 1210.” (Frost Brown Todd)
- Ascensus Launches National 403(b) PEP for Nonprofits — “The 403(b) PEP comes with a bundled administrative structure combining recordkeeping, fiduciary oversight and plan administration.” (PLANSPONSOR)
- Empower Set to Acquire Milliman Retirement Administration Business — “Empower will acquire the business for a total consideration of $340 million.” (PLANADVISER)