Employee Benefits Security Administration September 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document contains a proposed regulation that, upon adoption, would implement amendments to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA or the Act), requiring the administrator of a multi-employer plan to provide copies of certain actuarial and financial information about the plan to participants and others upon request. The amendments, enacted by the Pension Protection Act of 2006, added subsection (k) to section 101 of ERISA. The proposed regulation would affect plan administrators, participants and beneficiaries of multi-employer plans, as well as employee representatives of such participants and employers that have an obligation to contribute to such plans.

This document contains a proposed regulation that, upon adoption, would establish a safe harbor for the selection of annuity providers for the purpose of benefit distributions from individual account plans covered by title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Also appearing in today's Federal Register is an interim final rule amending Interpretive Bulletin 95-1 to limit the application of the Bulletin to the selection of annuity providers for defined benefit plans. The proposed regulation, upon adoption, will affect plan sponsors and fiduciaries of individual account plans, and the participants and beneficiaries covered by such plans.

This document contains exemptions issued by the Department of Labor (the Department) from certain of the prohibited transaction restrictions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA or the Act) and/or the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the Code). A notice was published in the Federal Register of the pendency before the Department of a proposal to grant such exemption. The notice set forth a summary of facts and representations contained in the application for exemption and referred interested persons to the application for a complete statement of the facts and representations. The application has been available for public inspection at the Department in Washington, DC. The notice also invited interested persons to submit comments on the requested exemption to the Department. In addition the notice stated that any interested person might submit a written request that a public hearing be held (where appropriate). The applicant has represented that it has complied with the requirements of the notification to interested persons. No requests for a hearing were received by the Department. Public comments were received by the Department as described in the granted exemption. The notice of proposed exemption was issued and the exemption is being granted solely by the Department because, effective December 31, 1978, section 102 of Reorganization Plan No. 4 of 1978, 5 U.S.C. App. 1 (1996), transferred the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury to issue exemptions of the type proposed to the Secretary of Labor.