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Compensation Planning Journal
The following were originally printed in BNA Tax Management's Compensation Planning Journal, a monthly journal which is part of the BNA Tax and Accounting Center.
| Volume 36 Number 5
Friday,
May 2, 2008
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When Does a Domestic Relations Order Determine the Disposition of ERISA Plan Benefits?
by Albert Feuer, Esq.*
Some state actions may affect employee benefit plans in too tenuous, remote, or peripheral a manner to warrant a finding that the law “relates to” the plan [and is thus preempted by ERISA]. Cf. American Telephone and Telegraph Co. v. Merry, 592 F.2d 118, 121 (2d Cir. 1979) (state garnishment of a spouse's pension income to enforce alimony and support orders is not pre-empted).
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IRS to Implement §403(b) Determination Letter Program
Among other changes in the revised regulations under §403(b), the IRS will require, effective January 1, 2009, that §403(b) plans be written plans (within the meaning of the regulations). For many years, the IRS has been considering whether it should have a determination letter program for §403(b) plans similar to the one it maintains for qualified plans.
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Increase in Plan Audits by IRS Expected
Several years ago, the IRS established the Employee Plans Team Audit (EPTA) program, which is designed to increase the number of plan audits. Under EPTA, the IRS focuses on larger plans because larger plans cover the majority of the plan participant universe and the majority of plan assets as well.
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District Court Rules that Michigan's Prohibition of “Discretionary Clauses” in Insurance Contracts Is Not Preempted by ERISA
A federal district court concluded that administrative rules issued by the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Services (“OFIS”) prohibiting insurers from marketing products containing “discretionary clauses” were not preempted by ERISA. American Council of Life Insurers v. Watters, 43 EBC 1129 (W.D. Mich. 2008).
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