For Immediate Release
Washington, DC – The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Treasury outlining ways to reduce regulatory burdens for retirement plans.
ERIC is the only national association that advocates exclusively for large employers on health, retirement, and compensation public policies at the federal, state, and local levels, and as such ERIC has a strong interest in regulatory burdens that negatively impact its members’ ability to provide cost-efficient retirement programs.
ERIC’s comments to the Dept. of Treasury focused on four areas:
- Withdrawing proposed rules on minimum present value requirements for defined benefit plan distributions;
- Advocating for further delay on implementation of rules regarding nondiscrimination testing relief for closed defined benefit pension plans and requesting additional changes to such rules before being finalized;
- Calling for additional review and economic analysis of proposed regulations to update mortality tables used for determining the present value of accounts under defined benefit pension plans; and
- Review of foreign bank and financial report rules that apply to retirement plans in an effort to reduce costs and burdens on the retirement plan community and corporate treasury staffs.
“It is imperative that regulations do not create uncertainty or introduce new risks that can drive plan sponsors further away from offering important and meaningful retirement benefits,” said Will Hansen, Senior Vice President of Retirement and Compensation Policy, ERIC. “Additionally, plan sponsors rely on the predictability of costs associated with offering a plan, but rising costs, like PBGC premiums, coupled with costs that the regulations discussed in this comment letter will impose on plan sponsors, is threatening the stability of the system.”