WASHINGTON BUREAU — The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has pushed back the compliance deadlines for new retirement plan fee disclosure rules.
EBSA, an arm of the U.S. Labor Department, has changed the effective date for the interim final fiduciary-level fee disclosure rule to April 1, 2012, from July 16.
EBSA also has extended the effective date of the transitional rule for the final participant-level fee disclosure regulation, so that initial disclosures must be furnished to the agency no later than 60 days "after a first day of the first plan year beginning on or after November 1, 2011, or 60 days after the effective date of the fiduciary-level fee disclosure rule."
The transitional rule also provides that certain quarterly disclosures must be furnished no later than 45 days after the end of the quarter in which the initial disclosures are required to be furnished to participants and beneficiaries under the transitional rule.
The rule is effective July 15.
EBSA says the final rule keeps a modified version of the 60-day transition rule that works in conjunction with the new effective date of the 408(b)(2) regulation that is now under development. The 408(b)(2) disclosure regulation will require retirement plan service providers to disclose comprehensive information about their fees and potential conflicts of interest to plan fiduciaries.