Employee Benefits Security Administration April 2024 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document rescinds the Department of Labor's (Department or DOL) 2018 rule entitled "Definition of Employer Under Section 3(5) of ERISAAssociation Health Plans" (2018 AHP Rule). The 2018 AHP Rule established an alternative set of criteria from those set forth in the Department's pre-2018 AHP Rule (pre-rule) guidance for determining when a group or association of employers is acting "indirectly in the interest of an employer" under section 3(5) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) for purposes of establishing an association health plan (AHP) as a multiple employer group health plan. The 2018 AHP Rule was a significant departure from the Department's longstanding pre-rule guidance on the definition of "employer" under ERISA. This departure substantially weakened the Department's traditional criteria in a manner that would have enabled the creation of commercial AHPs functioning effectively as health insurance issuers. The Department now believes that the core provisions of the 2018 AHP Rule are, at a minimum, not consistent with the best reading of ERISA's statutory requirements governing group health plans.

This document contains a notice of amendment to Prohibited Transaction Exemption (PTE) 84-24, an exemption from certain prohibited transaction provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the Code). The amendment affects participants and beneficiaries of plans, individual retirement account (IRA) owners, and certain fiduciaries of plans and IRAs.

The Department of Labor (Department) is adopting a final rule defining when a person renders "investment advice for a fee or other compensation, direct or indirect" with respect to any moneys or other property of an employee benefit plan, for purposes of the definition of a "fiduciary" in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (Title I of ERISA or the Act). The final rule also applies for purposes of Title II of ERISA to the definition of a fiduciary of a plan defined in Internal Revenue Code (Code), including an individual retirement account or other plan identified in the Code. The Department also is publishing elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register amendments to Prohibited Transaction Exemption 2020-02 (Improving Investment Advice for Workers & Retirees) and to several other existing administrative exemptions from the prohibited transaction rules applicable to fiduciaries under Title I and Title II of ERISA.

This document makes a technical correction to Prohibited Transaction Exemption (PTE) 2016-11 granted to Northern Trust Corporation (D-11875) on October 28, 2016.

This document gives notice of a granted amendment to prohibited transaction class exemption 84-14 (the QPAM Exemption). The QPAM Exemption provides relief from certain prohibited transaction restrictions of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA) and Title II of ERISA, as codified in the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the Code).

This document extends the comment period for the request for information entitled "SECURE 2.0 Section 319Effectiveness of Reporting and Disclosure Requirements" that was published in the January 23, 2024, issue of the Federal Register. The comment period for the request for information, which had been scheduled to close on April 22, 2024, is extended 30 days to May 22, 2024.