For Immediate Release
Washington, DC – The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) has secured a permanent exemption for ERIC members from the Illinois Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program (Secure Choice) reporting requirements.
Under a Memorandum of Understanding (the Memorandum) with the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer, ERIC members are not required to make any filings with the Treasurer in order to be exempt from the requirement to enroll its Illinois-based employees in Secure Choice. An ERIC member will be exempt by having ERIC communicate on its behalf to the State Treasurer that the company is an ERIC member.
“We are hopeful that other states that impose automatic enrollment IRA programs will see the Memorandum as a viable alternative to imposing reporting obligations,” said Aliya Robinson, Senior Vice President, Retirement and Compensation. “ERIC will continue advocating on the federal, state, and local levels to protect large employers’ ability to design and administer health and retirement plans unique to their workforces without mandates that violate federal law. The ability of large employers to follow a single set of federal rules is critical to their ability to provide benefits to their workers, families, and retirees across the country. ERIC does not oppose state efforts to provide retirement plan options to employers that do not offer a retirement plan but opposes any attempt to mandate reporting or other obligations on companies that offer a federally-regulated retirement plan.”
Last year, ERIC secured an exemption from the OregonSaves reporting requirement. ERIC had sued the Oregon Retirement Savings Board in 2017 for violating the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) by requiring employers with ERISA plans to comply with reporting rules imposed by the state-run mandatory retirement plan, OregonSaves.
In its complaint, ERIC argued that ERISA, which governs retirement plans, like 401(k) plans, preempts the OregonSaves reporting requirements imposed on employers that already provide an ERISA retirement plan to their Oregon employees.