Employee Benefits Security Administration October 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Labor is proposing in this document a new, additional safe harbor for the use of electronic media by employee benefit plans to furnish information to participants and beneficiaries of plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). The proposal, if adopted, would allow plan administrators who satisfy specified conditions to provide participants and beneficiaries with a notice that certain disclosures will be made available on a website. Individuals who prefer to receive these disclosures on paper will be able to request paper copies and to opt out of electronic delivery entirely. The Department expects that the proposal, if adopted, would improve the effectiveness of the disclosures and significantly reduce the costs and burden associated with furnishing many of the recurring and most costly ERISA disclosures. This document also contains, in section D of the preamble, a Request for Information that explores whether and how any additional changes to ERISA's general disclosure framework, focusing on design, delivery, and content, may be made to further improve the effectiveness of ERISA disclosures.

The Department of Labor (the Department), in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, provides the general public and Federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on proposed and continuing collections of information. This helps the Department assess the impact of its information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. It also helps the public understand the Department's information collection requirements and provide the requested data in the desired format. The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) is soliciting comments on the proposed extension of the information collection requests (ICRs) contained in the documents described below. A copy of the ICRs may be obtained by contacting the office listed in the ADDRESSES section of this notice. ICRs also are available at reginfo.gov (https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain).