The federal government now has the rules it needs to fine plan administrators for violating Pension Protection Act of 2006 notice requirements.
The Employee Benefits Security Administration, an arm of the U.S. Labor Department, today published a final version of the rules, “Civil Penalties Under ERISA Section 502(c)(4),” in the Federal Register.
The PPA expanded the notice requirements in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.
Administrators now must notify participants and beneficiaries of a single-employer defined benefit pension plan about new limits on benefits and accruals, and they must notify participants in a defined contribution plan with an automatic contribution arrangement about their rights and obligations under the arrangement.
Plan administrators also must provide certain documents to any employer, beneficiary or plan participant that has an obligation to contribute to a multiemployer plan, and they must send a notice of potential withdrawal liability to any employer with an obligation to contribute to a multiemployer plan.
Administrators that violate the notice requirements may have to pay a fine of up to $1,000 per day for each violation, officials write in a preamble to the final regulations.
EBSA received only 2 comments on the draft version of the regulations, which was released in December.